Battlezone II: Lost Legacy
by Admiral Kelley
Summary: In a universe of bio-metal ships and grand experiments gone wrong there exists an elite group of warriors who work behind the scenes in the ISDF, keeping the Earth safe from afar weather they know it or not, fighting an enemy looking to reclaim a lost leg
1. Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt1

Battlezone II: Lost Legacy  
by Admiral Kelley  
  
  
  
Please observe that I dont own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to come rip you apart piece by piece. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sitback, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost legacy pt1 by Admiral Kelley. You are also encouraged to give this story honest reviews so I can polish pt.2 up a bit unless you have something really negative to say in which case I encourage you to lie creatively.  
  
Please note that this story takes place after the first war with the Scions and is a continuation of the Scion side storyline. If you dont know what I'm talking about then ask somebody who does.  
  
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"Beginning landing approach", was all the warning the troops aboard the Equinox had before the massive duel engines flared to life with a thundering roar which was audible even through the ships reinforced hull and the troops battle suits. It never failed to make Cmdr. Tim Robertson grin when the green troops barfed in their helmets from the sudden jolts of atmospheric entry and the added torture the inner ear received from the vibrations caused by the retro boosters. That effect was lost however on the more senior members of Wraith squadron since they had done it many times before enough so that they somehow adapted to the abusive nature of insertions. In fact this was one of the smoothest entries Robertson had ever experienced due to the almost non existent atmosphere of Core the Scions newly created homeworld. Then came a second corous of lunch reviews as the ship made what seemed like a hard starport turn to the south where the ISDF's only spaceport was currently located where on Earth the South Pole would be.  
  
Robertson stole a quick glance outside the viewpoint one of the few luxuries that a commander got but a welcome one at that. It was a completely alien landscape that varied dramatically from Earth and appeared to have been constructed by a mad architect. Pillars of light erupted from the ground spewing forth radiant blue light and odd looking towers which seemed to have no purpose were strewn about everywhere as far as the eye could see and then some. In a sense the planet seemed to be organic which was technically true according to many scientific studies that had concluded that Core was made almost entirely out of bio-metal which ment that it possibly was a living breathing organism and that it had a soul. None of this mattered to Cmdr. Robertson as he looked away from his viewport and continued to take some perverse amusement from the suffering of the newbies which was slackening somewhat as the huge dropship slowed its decent a few hundred meters over the spaceport and made for the only pad big enough to accommodate it at the moment.   
  
Below, the spaceport designated Cloud-9 by some smartass in the Ops center was in a flurry of activity as Scion and ISDF haulers alike scurried about securing ships and cargo. The ships massive engines flared one last time to make the landing as smooth as possible not so much for the human cargoes comfort but ensure that the assorted tanks and supplies were not damaged from the shock. After a few moments there came the familiar jolting thump as the landing gear announced that they had found solid ground. It took a few seconds for the shock absorbers to quit bouncing the ship around but before long they were completely still and ready to disembark for what was supposed to be a quiet tour of duty. But before the straps came off the crash seats a red light blinked above the main hatch indicating that they had one minute to secure their life-support gear to themselves before the inside was flooded with the planets atmosphere.  
  
Though as a precaution Robertson had ordered his squadron to already have their gear ready to go before they launched from the carrier for safety reasons meaning that the newbies would have to wait until they finished their duties for the day and got inside the pressurized barracks before they could clean off lunch from the inside of their suits. After exactly one minute came the hissing sound of the environmental pumps replacing the human friendly atmosphere with the lethal gasses found outside the walls of the ship so that the troops wouldn't have to experience the joys of explosive decompression which Robertson knew from experience was not fun. It took a total of five minutes to match up the inner troops compartment with the outside atmosphere before the red blinking light switched to a solid green which ment that it should be safe to open the hatch. Robertson stood up as the crashseat straps released him and walked with his XO Lt. Anderson up to the hatch as the rest of the troops attempted to adapt themselves to Cores strange lighter than Earth gravity.  
  
As Robertson punched in the code required to open the door he hoped that the computer hadn't goofed on equalizing the pressure as it was known to do sometimes and deliver him and Anderson a rapid exit from the compartment and a few hundred meters out with his head stuck in the ground. The code checked out and then came the familiar grinding noise as the hatch rolled into the bulkhead and the ramp lowered at a rather steep angle to the ground where an single Scion was waiting. Robertson had just finished fighting a war with the Scions and was having a hard time adapting to the idea that the Scions were now friends. Robertson could see that Anderson felt the same way as she stiffened up slightly upon seeing the Scion at the foot of the ramp after all the last time either of them had seen a Scion was at gunpoint. The CO and XO of Wraith squadron took their time descending the ramp to greet the person at the other end.   
  
Cmdr. Robertson was the first to reach the bottom and was greeted by the Scion over the squadron radio since the atmosphere made regular vocal communication damn near impossible. "Welcome to Core Commander, I trust you and your comrades had a pleasant flight?" said the Scion with what sounded to both Anderson and Robertson like a glint of sarcasm.   
  
Scions can have a sense of humor? Thought Robertson, Perhaps this wont be such a boring assignment after all. Before either of the officers could muster up a greeting of their own the Scion thrust into each of their hands a datapad displaying an inventory of their transports supplies and where they could stash them and some helpful soul had loaded a map showing them what was where and more importantly the barracks they would be staying in since no two spaceports were the same a fact that officers all over the ISDF bitched about when supplies and vehicles went where they weren't supposed to. "Uhh, thanks" said Robertson before he looked up and noticed the Scion was already running like Hell over to another recently arrived transport to pass out datapads before the commanders and their squadrons scattered to make their nests in the assorted barracks and hangars.  
  
"Polite little bastards aren't they" commented Lt. Anderson as she noted the Scions speedy departure. She had made only a cursory glance at her pad noting only where the troops needed to end up at the end of the day and where to stick their weapons.  
  
"They certainly are XO" said Robertson as he gestured up the ramp "Why dont you make sure Paddy gets a copy of this list along with a map for everybody. I dont want another fracas like last time when we wandered into the wrong bar at the wrong time."  
  
"Yessir and by the way sir might I add that you have an excellent right hook."   
  
Robertson had to grin at that as he remembered the far from sober individuals who had decided that he and his squadron would be easy pickings. "Thankyou XO now get going I want that gear stashed in an hour, I'll be in Ops with the General if you need me. If all goes to plan I'll meet you at the barracks at around 2100."  
  
"Aye sir" said Anderson as she sped back up the ramp and Cmdr. Robertson made a b-line for the nearest transport.  
  
  
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The ride through the bases tunnels was thouroghy uneventful for Robertson though he was sitting across from three Scion officers who were apparently heading to the same place as he. Robertson had tried to get some sleep but because he had three Scions sitting across from him and his customized pulse rifle strapped in his backpack case his instincts would not allow him to fall asleep for fear of waking up to three grinning Scion faces with his own weapon at his head. So Robertson was relieved greatly when the Scions didn't follow him off the transport when it stopped in Ops and he got off and headed down the corridor to the double armored doors seemingly guarded by only two heavily armed soldiers. But Robertson knew better and spotted the small cracks in the tunnels walls that would pop out at a moments notice to reveal a rapid fire laser or heat seeking grenade or some other nasty surprise for anybody brave or stupid enough to try and force their way into Ops. Robertson saluted the guards and gave the proper voiced code which was "Howdy Partner" then moved between the guards and entered a series of digits into a small security console which beeped an affirmative and opened the double doors into the decontamination chamber.   
  
Once there Robertson went over and put his hands to the wall spread eagle like and let the chamber soak him in chemicals to disinfect him for passage into the atmosphere of the base. Once that was done Robertson quickly closed his eyes as a flash of light dried him and the chamber completely off. Then a green light above the door ahead of him signaled that the process was over and a small panel opened revealing a number pad for him to input the last damn code for this whole process. With that done Robertson waited for a minute while the chamber pumped in the proper amount of oxygen and nitrogen to accommodate a human and then removed his helmet when the hissing stopped taking a long breath and coughing from the strong smell the chemicals left behind. Ahead of him the door opened revealing a very busy Ops center thankfully with only a few Scions present.  
  
Robertson looked around the circular room and couldn't spot the general out at first. This didn't worry him since the general would make himself known to everyone in the room very soon. "What the Hell do you mean the south arrays are out again, you said they'd been fixed this morning damnit!" came a loud voice that could only be General Alistar himself from the center of Ops where a large screen table was located to give the general and his associates overview of a battle should there ever be one.  
  
"B-B-ut sir" came the nervous reply of an aide who was obviously new to dealing with the general. "The repair teams report that the electronics are being effected by the atmosphere and they don't have the proper sealant to protect them."   
  
"Well have you put in an order for the sealant?" came the irate reply of a general who probably hadn't slept for awhile.  
  
"N-n-no s-sir." was the reply and Robertson almost felt sorry for the hapless aide as he stood there not wanting to interrupt the general in the middle of a good chewing out which he knew the general enjoyed a great deal.  
  
"Then put the damn order in! I will not sit here and be shot in the ass from a surprise attack because some piece of silicone decided it doesn't like the weather! Now get the order out be-" said the general before he noticed Robertson standing across the room obviously waiting for him. "Bout time you showed up commander, get your ass in my office!" then General James T. Alistar looked back to the aide and spoke to him in a low dangerous tone saying "If I were you I'd make myself scarce until I got some good news." with those final words General Alistar stormed off into his office and only when the doors had closed did everyone in the Ops center breath a collective sigh of relief.  
  
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"Good to see you again James!" said Robertson as soon as the door to General Alistar's office closed and nobody could hear their conversation.  
  
"Likewise Tim." said Alistar as he sat down in his chair and reached into his desk to pull out a small bottle of Bourbon which he poured into three glasses. One of those went to his longtime friend and perhaps his finest Spec. Ops. Commander Tim Robertson.  
Robertson accepted the glass and took a small sip and let the pleasant feeling of the drink wash over his body and allowed himself to feel a little more relaxed. He took another short sip and eyed the third cup which Alistar had poured.  
  
"Expecting somebody James?" said Robertson motioning to the third glass sitting on the edge of his desk.  
  
"Actually hes already here" said Alistar.  
  
"What?" said Robertson feeling a little confused right then. Then almost as if on cue a shape detached itself from the shadows and moved toward the desk picking up the glass with unseen fingers. Robertson was startled out of his relaxed state and drew his riffle in a heartbeat instincts screaming that there was danger about. Robertson had his sights on the most likely spot where the creatures body mass would be and was about to pull the trigger when the shape suddenly became visible revealing itself o be a Scion with the markings of a Supreme Commander on his armored chest.  
  
"Please calm yourself commander I did not mean to startle you." said the now plainly visible Scion. Robertson reluctantly put away his rifle and saw the smile on Alistars face which Robertson took to mean that this particular Scion posed no major threat at the moment. The Scion then lifted it to his face which was surprisingly human in appearance only without hair and took a long pull.  
  
"Commander Robertson meet Padisha Burns of the Scion collective." said Alistar.  
  
"Delighted I'm sure" said Robertson extending his hand to shake the leader of the Scions in a friendly greeting which Burns returned with short shake of his own not trying to display dominance or anything of the like. "Umm, No offense Burns but how the Hell-" started Robertson before he was cut off by the Padisha.  
  
"How the Hell did I accomplish that little trick?" said Burns who now had a grin on his face along with a bourbon glass in hand making him look alarmingly human. "I manipulated the bio-metal in my body to match my skin to my outer surroundings, a useful trick which takes some time to master." the Scion replied. Deep down Robertson thanked whatever God made it so that trick was not a common trait among the Scion soldiers. That would have made an extravehicular battle a cast iron bitch to win against a Scion.   
  
"I hate to interrupt this bonding experience" said Alistar   
"But there is a reason I wanted you here instead of in that Hellhole of activity in Ops Center, Burns if you would please activate the map."   
  
"Yes General" replied Burns as he pushed a button on the desk console activating a holographic map which displayed a large sector of Core somewhere around the equator judging by the sector coordinates. "For the past several weeks we have been losing contact with some of our Warrior platoons moving across this sector along with an entire regiment of Maulers just yesterday. Satellite recon from both our units and yours have failed to reveal the location of the missing vehicles or their pilots. We have sent manned patrols out for recon also but many of those have disappeared and the ones that returned reported finding nothing, not even scrap from a fight. But there are also other things that make this situation even stranger."  
  
"Yes" replied Alistar. "ISDF units have also begun to disappear from here as well ranging from Sabre tank platoons to an entire division of Sentinels yesterday at almost the exact same time as the disappearance of the Scion Maulers.   
  
"Damn" whistled Robertson as he reviewed the missing units list which contained enough fire power to make any commander sweat about engaging. "Whats this name here mean, Centurion-4? I think thats how its pronounced."  
  
Burns and Alistar traded a look probably deciding who gave out the bad news. Then Alistar spoke, "Centurion-4 is one of our firebases situated along the equator. We lost contact a few hours ago and satellite recon reports that the buildings are in pristine condition but there is no activity in or around the base. It's one of our experimental bases where we're trying to combine Scion and ISDF technology together so far with good success." Burns looked up from the map and finally spoke.  
  
"Do you have any thoughts on how these units might have been stolen?" asked the Padisha who was clearly not happy that some of his people had gone missing.  
  
"Yea, its simple enough to get the Warriors and Sabres. All you need do is position a few snipers on the hills here and here." said Robertson pointing to the spots where the vehicles paths passed. "Its only a fifty meter shot and fairly easy for anybody with half a brain but as for the Maulers and Sentinels they have no cockpit canopy that a sniper round can penetrate, I dont see how the Hell anybody could of made off with them unless the pilots got out and left the hatches open, and I certainly hope we dont have this many people in our respective armies who are that stupid." said Robertson finishing his statement.  
  
"Yes we were thinking along the same line" said Alistar "but we've sent scouting parities out after them and those who return report nothing which brings us to the reason why you're here. As of 1700 today I'm setting all installations on alert status three and no additional troop movement by land is to be made. Since none of our scouting parties have reveled anything useful to us we're betting that we could get some answers out of Centurion-4 so you and five of your squadron mates will be moving out in an hour to scout the base out and report back what you find." Alistar then sat down in his chair and handed Robertson a disk full of intelligence info and the mission profile which could be uploaded into his own personal data pad.  
  
"But sir" objected Robertson, "my squadron has just landed and are without a full compliment of vehicles and support craft"  
  
"I realized that Tim so I've arranged for you to "borrow" some of Gold Squadrons Thunderbolts from whats left of the second fleet for the job. You'll be inserted by the Equinox approximately one thousand meters from your objective. Once you've completed your recon or you run into any opposition you can head to the dust-off point here five-hundred meters south east of your objective. Any questions?"  
asked Alistar before he and Burns stood up and shook Robertson's hand. "Good luck Tim and please come back alive." were the last words uttered by Alistar before he slipped back into his General Alistar persona and stormed out the door to verbally assault some unlucky officer who happened to catch his attention.  
  
Burn's exit was less noticeable as he cloaked himself and said one final thing to Cmdr. Robertson before he left "Good luck Tim, please find out what happened to my people." and then he had disappeared to God knows where.  
  
"I will sir" said Robertson to the empty air in front of him. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone just yet he felt a sort of kinship with this particular Scion who seemed to be generally concerned with the welfare of his troops just like General Alistar and himself. Robertson took one final look at the document then finished his bourbon in one gulp while stuffing the pad in his belt and heading off to find the appropriate squadron members out the ops center through the door that led to the pressurized section of the base which included all of the barracks along with many of the supply rooms, hangars, medbays, and everything else that didn't need to be stuffed outside exposed to the corrosive conditions of Cores atmosphere.  
  
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A few kilometers away somebody else besides the General Alistar was having trouble with subordinates. "Damnit dont manhandle that box its sensitive equipment!" shouted Lt. Anderson. It was in fact Wraith squadrons limited supply of alcohol which was needed to properly celebrate successful missions. Anderson ran up to the Scion hauler loading the cargo container in a rather sloppy manner into the pressurized supply hanger 20 where the Wraiths were to keep the vast majority of their supplies until they moved out to a more permanent location and started shouting to the pilot inside to sober up and stop manhandling their Goddamn equipment. Then the Scion did something totally unexpected and jumped out of its cockpit to confront the human who had the nerve to speak badly about its piloting ability. The Scion had its helmet on despite he comfortable atmosphere of the hanger and only its angry eyes could be seen through the visor. At its full height the Scion was about a foot taller than Anderson but in her case height was not an advantage the Scion had over her.  
  
"Do you have something to say to me human?" sneered the upstart hauler pilot who was slightly surprised by the boldness of this human female to insult him so.  
  
"Yea, maybe if you pulled you head out your ass you could pilot that rust bucket properly and stop breaking our goddamn equipment!" came the irate reply of Wraith squadrons XO.  
  
"Are you implying that I cannot pilot my craft effectively?" asked the now visibly angry Scion who obviously had never met this particular woman before else he would of known to back off while he still could.  
  
"Bet your blue ass I am!" said Anderson as she stared him straight the face making contact with the quivering eyes in the helmet.  
  
"Why you- I shall teach you a lesson not soon forgotten human!" shouted the Scion as his anger finally took over and he charged the woman who jumped back several feet aided by Cores much lighter gravity while simultaneously delivering him a kick in the face for his troubles knocking off his helmet revealing his bald head and human like features for all the world to see. The Scion was phased momentarily as he checked his nose to see that there was some blood leaking out. This suddenly boiled his anger past the threshold and made this womans death an instant priority to him. In the blink of an eye he had drawn out his riffle and set it to empty the ammo pack in a single shot. More than enough to vaporize his target. In less than a second he had lined up his target and was preparing to fire when a shot from another riffle landed right at his feet breaking his concentration and causing him to look over to the other side of the hangar where a lone man with the rank of commander on his uniform was standing, his riffle smoking slightly from the recently fired round.  
  
"Put the gun down before I put it down for you" shouted Robertson his rifle aimed and ready. Then the Scion did the stupidest thing he could have done and swung around to try and fire at him. Robertson sighed and fired off a second round right into the Scions arm taking it off completely at the shoulder and sending the gun clattering to the ground. The next sound was the thump of the Scions arm hitting the ground followed by the body then the loud scream as the pain finally caught up to him. Robertson walked over to the still screaming Scion to examine his handiwork. The wound was already beginning to close with bio-metal skin and the arm had melted into a pool of bio-metal. Within a week the arm will have regrown and the Scion would come away unharmed with a bitter lesson learned, dont screw with his Squadmates.  
  
"Oh shut up" said Anderson as she delivered a kick to the Scions temple and knocked him out cold. She then spread a smile on her face which abruptly faded when she looked up into the face of her commander to see a look on his face that you might give to a disruptive child. "He started it!" said Anderson pointing at the now unresponsive from of the Scion who had attacked her.  
  
"I dont want to know about it, just get a replacement pilot for that hauler then drum up the guys and have them meet me in launch bay 12 at 1800." said Robertson handing her a datapad with five names on it with hers included.   
  
"Whats up CO have we got a mission this early in deployment? Hell we dont have enough ships and supplies to take on the damn UCLA pep squad much less anything were bound to meet in a field deployment!"  
  
Robertson merely shrugged it off "Alistar says hes got it taken care of and we know we can trust him."  
  
"Well then I guess I'll be off on my merry way by the way thanks for the assist that bastard may have gotten his first shot off before me."  
  
"Dont mention it...Ever!" replied Robertson as he and Anderson went their separate ways.  
  
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The names at the top of Anderson's list were Sergeant Jack "Paddy" O'rily and Sergeant Hank "Pyro" Patterson. Paddy was the squadrons supply and matinence officer and was easy enough to find. The red haired man was chatting merrily away over a pint with other supply officers in the bases bar trying to trade around stocks of food and supplies to aquire a better inventory of parts and supplies that he deemed necessary for operations. Anderson's entrance did not go unnoticed by him and he invited her over to an empty booth to discuss whatever the hell she was here to discuss.  
  
"Whats up lass?" said the Irishman as he settled into his seat and started to take a long pull from his mug.  
  
"Were being deployed on an assignment God knows where. Report to Hangar bay 12 at 1800" The effect was clearly visible as the Irishman accidentally spit out his brew and went on to complain.  
  
"But lass, we donna have enough ships and sure as hell not enough supplies to-"  
  
"To take on the UCLA pep squad much less anybody out in the field yes I know Paddy but these orders came from General Alistar himself."  
  
"Oh, then I guess theres nothing else to say. Alistars a good man. Will that be all lass?" asked Paddy.  
  
"Actually do you know where Pyro is?" asked Anderson.  
  
"That I do lass hes the largish black fellow over there drinkin that stupid Scion under the table."  
  
"Well have him come with you since his names on the list also and for Gods sake get some sober pills into him this time."  
  
"That I will lass, that I will" said Paddy as Anderson got up and left to find the last two people on her list. He then glanced over to the black American who had just finished drinking his Scion opponent to the ground much to the delight of the human crowd and the unhappiness of the Scion bunch. "Hey Pyro get it over here man!" shouted Paddy finishing off his whisky and popping a pair of sober pills into his mouth and swallowed with his last bit of drink. The large sergeant made his way through the crowd to Paddy's table then sat down.  
  
"Whats up Paddy?" asked Pyro who seemed to be surprisingly sober.  
  
"Weve got a mission at 1800 in hanger 12 so get some sober pills into your system man, were movin out." Paddy told the him right out.  
"A mission so soon into deployment? Hell we ain't got nothin proper to fight with!" said the sergeant as he swallowed four sober pills without assistance from liquor.  
  
"I know, but General Alistar asked us out and says hes handled it." the mention of Alistar calmed Pyro down somewhat and allowed him to digest his pills.  
  
"Well its getting close to 1800 by the way where the bloody hell is hangar 12?" Paddy asked Pyro.  
  
"I've got a map, come on lets go find it" and with that the two friends/wingmen moved out of the bar to find hangar 12.  
  
  
  
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The last stop for Lt. Anderson was in the barracks for their squadron. Inside she could see the newbies making their nests and setting away secret stashes of assorted items that would gain in value among the base personnel as supply drops became less and less frequent. Many of the newbies had their suits hung on the walls to let them air out the smell of semi-digested food that was now and forever pasted into the bio-metal suits. It was a standing joke in the ISDF that you always ate your favorite food before your first drop because thats what you would be smelling for the rest of your military career. Anderson had picked up that bit of advice from Cmdr. Robertson and her suit smelled like strawberries with whip cream. Unfortunately for these recruits they hadn't had the foresight to bring their own food and ate from the carriers cafeteria before they launched.   
  
Anderson made a quick glance around the barracks and saw who she was looking for. Sergeant Hans "Steel" Guttenburg their communications expert chatting quietly with Amanda "Angel" Simmons possibly the toughest bitch in the ISDF and an expert in extravehicular battle she much preferred to fight outside the confines of a tank.  
  
"Angel and Steel!" shouted Anderson over the dull roar of the barracks. "My office for five minutes!" then Anderson disappeared into her small but personal quarters merited to the XO of Wraith Squadron which included her bunk and a computer terminal desk and adjacent to the opening door that led to the main barracks room was her own bathroom. A few seconds later Angel and Steel entered her office/room and took a seat on her bunk to hear what the word was.  
  
"Whats up Phoenix?" asked Angel using Anderson's call sign.  
  
"Ja, what is the business at hand?" Steel added trying out his English.  
  
"We have a mission at 1800 in hanger 12 get suited up and meet the rest of us there."  
  
"We are not bringing the children?" asked Steel referring to the newbies and less senior members of Wraith Squadron.  
  
"And who the hell authorized this little ditty. Christ, we just got here and cant be fully operational for at least a week." said Angel voicing her view outright as she always did.  
  
"The order came from General Alistar so just shag it to hanger bay 12 by 1800 will you. I've got a few other things to handle so see you there." Anderson quickly departed to take care of some other duties leaving Steel and Angel with puzzled looks upon their faces.  
  
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They were, Robertson divided, some of the best vehicles to come out of the second fleet which had taken murderous losses after that fool General Braddock, former General Braddock Robertson corrected himself, had led his fleet through that wormhole in pursuit of a Scion dropship leading him stranded half-way across the fucking galaxy to fend for themselves on some Godforsaken rocks called Mire, Bane, and Rend. Robertson checked his watch and saw that it was ten minutes to 1800 which ment that the guys should be arriving right about now. No sooner had he completed the thought when Paddy and Pyro came through the door in full battle dress. Their eyes first landed upon the Thunderbolts lined up in rows of three since Robertson was hiding in the shadows of a stack of supply crates and they wandered over to inspect the ships conditions.  
  
"Ah Hell, dont tell me we be drivin these rinky dink Thunderbolts!" complained Pyro who typically flew the heavy assault ships like the Sentinels or Atilla Walkers.  
  
"It appears so Pyro my lad, but it aint so bad, look some thoughtful person outfitted them with some chainguns instead o those damn spitball miniguns." Paddy said to Pyro trying to make the best out of an uncomfortable situation.  
  
"Yea, and the fire and forget missiles are still there." Pyros attention suddenly fell upon the cockpit canopy. "Hey these are polysteel canopies!"   
  
"So" asked Paddy.  
  
"So that means nobody can snipe your ass unless they put the gun right on the window." replied Pyro thinking that it might not be so bad to fly these ships after all. Their technical analysis was interrupted by the arrival of Steel and Angel likewise dressed in their full battle suits.  
  
"What is this about Polysteel canopies?" inquired Steel as he inspected one of the vehicles. " Ach, this is truly a God-send these radar systems are top of the line." Steel commented as he ran his hand over the length of the ship.  
  
"Damn this cockpit is small." commented Angel as she hefted her huge tank-killer pulse riffle and stuffed it into the seat so she could grab it on her way out should she need to eject. The last person to arrive was Phoenix still slipping her jetpack around her shoulders as she called out.  
  
"Wraith Squadron fall in!" in response every person in the hangar lined up horizontally across shoulder to shoulder each standing with their wingmate in front of a large viewscreen. Phoenix walked over and stood in front of the screen then stood still at attention.  
  
"Wheres Slayer?" asked Pyro referring to Cmdr. Robertson using the name he had been given after single handily killing three Maulers while defending Phoenix who was stuck with a damaged ship.   
  
"Check your six." replied a voice that had come from no less than two feet behind Pyro scaring the shit out of him.  
  
"Crap CO, take pity on a poor mans heart!" said Pyro after he landed from being scared ten feet in the air."  
  
Slayer ignored the comment and proceeded over to the view screen slipping his Intel disk inside the slot and activating the screen. Only when he was ready to begin the briefing did he announce "At ease Wraiths!". Steel was the first to speak up.  
  
"What is the word from above Herr Commander?" asked the German in his best English.  
  
"Yea whats all the hullabaloo CO, we wont be operational till the end of the week and not a peak performance till the end of the month." inquired Paddy.  
  
"The word from above Steel is that were moving out to do a little recon here along the equator." said Slayer bringing up the correct map position. "and the hullabaloo Paddy is that many Scion and ISDF units have been disappearing and the scouting parties sent after them have met much with the same fate. Those that returned report finding nothing not even scrap from a fight. General Alistar seems to think these units were stolen as does the Padisha of the Scions but by whom we dont have a clue." Slayer made an intentional pause in his report to hear the inevitable question which was voiced by Angel.  
  
"But sir if the scouting parties cant find anything why are we being sent out?"  
  
"Were not going to review travel routes like the other scouts did, instead were heading to Centurion-4." stated Slayer, "From what I've been told its an experimental firebase that went off the air a few hour ago. The Brass seems to think we might find some answers there"  
  
"What kind of an experimental base?" asked Pyro.  
  
"The kind that we need to investigate." answered Slayer quickly moving on to finish his briefing before 1800. "Well be inserting via the Equinox here about 1000 meters from our objective. Once we finish our recon the Equinox will land here for dustoff. Any questions?" asked Slayer. Phoenix raised her hand and Slayer nodded for her to go ahead.  
  
"How do we distinguish friend from foe?"  
  
"Alistar is putting all Core installations on alert level three meaning that all troop movement will be done by air. So if it moves its a target." answered Slayer  
  
"Just the way I like it!" proclaimed Pyro drawing a few chuckles here and there.  
  
"Thats all Wraiths, secure you ships and be ready to move in ten minutes!"  
  
"Yes sir!" was the unanimous rely from the troops.  
  
  
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This seems likie a nice place to leave off for the time bieng. All of the main characters have been introduced and the problem at hand is now known. Please give this story some honest reviews so I can publish pt. 2 which is already written and awaiting a final draft based upon your reviews.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt2

Battlezone II: Lost Legacy by Admiral Kelley  
Part 2   
  
  
  
  
Please observe that I don't own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to come rip you apart piece by piece. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sitback, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost legacy pt2 by Admiral Kelley and you are still encouraged to send me honest reviews or creative lies depending upon the content of your opinion so I can make part three better.  
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It was an unusually windy day along Cores equator. Enough so that some of the turbulence got to even the most senior members in Wraith squadron who were now strapped into their Thunderbolt scouts magnetically clamped down to the deckplating in the underbelly of the Equinox where craft and cargo went instead of the troop compartment they'd arrived on the planet in. Gust after gust hit the Equinox, each time knocking it about and wiggling the securely clamped Thunderbolts causing them to occasionally trade paint with their wingmates because they were so tightly packed into the cargo bay.  
  
"One minute to IP" came a voice over the headset radios announcing that the team was soon to be deployed for their first assignment since arriving. Slayer just hoped it wouldn't be their last.   
  
"Wraiths, Comm. check, report in!" Slayer blared over the radio.  
  
"Phoenix green across the board and ready to go!"  
  
"Paddy here, systems prepped and pilot sober!"  
  
"Pyro is active and ready to kick some ass!"  
  
"Angel is armed and dangerous Cmdr.!"  
  
"Steel is here and ready to serve!"  
  
"Ten seconds to I.P. 9-8-7...." came the voice over the intercom.  
  
"Okay Wraiths I'm ready to Rock!" said Slayer over the squadron frequency.  
  
"Then were ready to Roll!" replied everybody else.  
  
"So look out you bastards!" shouted Slayer to the outer hatches as they began to open.  
  
"Beginning Insertion drop" came the cool voice of the Equinoxes pilot as she dipped the crafts nose so it was pointed down to the ground and fired the retros sending it up while at the same time flipping a switch which released the Thunderbolts from the magnetic locks dropping them out of the cargo bay like stones.  
  
"Cause here we go!" was the enthusiastic reply shouted by the squadron as gravity gripped at their fighters and tried to smash them into the ground. But gravity's presence on this planet was not so strong and the Thunderbolts managed to get their ships lined up by pairs three in total and the pairs lined up one behind the other with Slayer and Phoenix in the lead.  
  
"Beginning cork screw maneuver." said Slayer just as he executed a slow turn to port sending his ship into a terminating circle that would allow him to land on the ground at a reasonable speed. Glancing behind him Slayer could barely see through the mist his other pilots following his lead. It was, Slayer decided, a feeling like no other to be dropped out of a speeding dropship five kilometers up and unfortunately one that he never got to feel quite often. Below him the terrain was much like anywhere else on Core with the usual assortment of odd looking structures and bluish purple ground that looked like deckplates instead of terrain. It took a total of ten minutes of glide time before the ship hit the ground with a bonejarring thud. Slayer immediately sidestepped his craft to starport so the other ships in his squadron could land. Ordinarily the drops would have been made with engine assistance but the glare from them would be visible for miles and they were trying to be stealthy.   
  
Looking out his canopy, Slayer waited until the third and last pair of ships landed before calling out. "Wraiths report in."  
  
"Phoenix here."  
  
"Paddy here."  
  
"Pyro here."  
  
"Angel has landed."  
  
"Ach, I need an aspirin."  
  
"Roger that. Slayer to Cloud-9 we have landed safely do you copy, over" said Robertson to his radio and the Ops center where General Alistar was probably watching them on the giant tactical display now.  
  
"We copy Slayer, recon your objective then report back what you find." came the slightly static filled reply from General Alistar.  
  
"Roger Cloud-9 Wraiths are on the move over and out." Slayer switched his radio back to squadron frequency. "Wraiths pair up and move out to the objective. Steel you and Angel take point and try to raise the firebase when we get within range."  
  
"Copy Slayer, Steel and Angel are taking point."  
  
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But unknown to the Wraiths their landing had not gone completely unnoticed.  
  
"Master" came a quiet voice from the other end of the chamber directed to a thing that was not quite human, and not quite Scion but seemed to be a combination of both.  
  
"What is it Drone?" said the thing as it put down a wicked looking instrument being used on a hapless human that had been captured in one of their early operations.  
  
"One of our patrols have reported that a small squadron of scout ships have been dropped behind our lines and appear to be moving to the human outpost we pacified recently. Do you wish us to capture them like the others?" asked the pitiful creature.  
  
"No, we have collected enough resources and are now ready to make ourselves known. Let them scout that outpost and then send a greeting party. Instruct the jammers to let them get one message out before they cut off communications with their headquarters. Then destroy them and leave plenty of evidence of a fight. Sticking their heads on a pike would be a nice way. Now get out of my sight Drone, I'm busy." the Drone instantly complied scuttling away to relay the orders from its master closing the doors behind it.  
  
"Now where were we?" it asked the human as it picked up another instrument and jammed it into the humans mid-section sending the human into a world of agony and soaking up the delicious pain that coursed through its soul.   
  
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"Centurion-4 this is Wraith squadron please respond, over." It was the sixth time Steel had made the call since they got within a decent range. But each time only silence had answered him. They were approaching 200 meters to target mark, well within communications range, which meant that the base radio had been knocked out by something and they couldn't answer or there was nobody alive to hear. "Steel to Slayer, I'm getting nothing Herr Commander not even static and were well within communications range."  
  
"Copy Steel, you can stop transmitting just sit back and listen for awhile." replied Slayer as he piloted his ship through the canyon that led to the firebase. Three minutes later they had come within visual range at about 50 meters to the nav beacon. Slayer eyed the terrain map in his HUD and dropped some nav beacons to show deployment positions. "Right..., Steel I want you on the hill a nav1 given me a fix on anything that moves. Angel check out the tunnels at nav2 for any sign of recent activity, Paddy and Pyro make your way inside to the bases Ops center at nav3 and try to recover the sensor logs, Phoenix you and I are going to check the surface structures to see what condition the base is in. Okay Wraiths lets get it done and go home."  
  
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"Copy Slayer, Paddy and Pyro are movin out." Paddy maneuvered his Thunderbolt along side Pyros and the two sped off to nav3 where the closest entrance to the insides of the base was. Along the way they passed several gun towers and Rattlers when they crossed the perimeter all of which were powered down. Farther into the base they found the Recycler and Factory and the Scion equivalents placed side by side also completely powered down. Eventually they reached their objective, which was a Relay Bunker in the center of the firebase. After parking their Thunderbolts Paddy and Pyro jumped out of their ships and proceeded inside.  
  
"I don't like it here Paddy. This place crawls." said Pyro as Paddy forced the door open to the decontamination chamber beyond while Pyro arced his riffle left and right looking for targets.  
  
"Calm down Pyro, if we find any banshees I'll let you have the first shot." said Paddy as he attempted to pry open the door on the bottom of the relay bunker. "Ugh, give me a hand will you these chamber doors are sealed up tight." Pyro complied adding his strength with Paddy's and soon both of the doors had been forced open then with their riffles drawn they entered the depressurized base to the Ops center beyond. Once inside they went over to the main console and used a small battery to turn it on.  
  
"Retrieving data now" said Pyro as he stuck a disk into the slot and downloaded all the logs made in the past several days. Paddy took the disk from Pyro after the download was complete and he was disconnecting the battery. He then stuck it into his data pad to read what they had collected.  
  
"Slayer to Paddy, do you have the logs?" the voice startled both men and Paddy had to wait for his heart to slow down before he spoke.  
  
"Aye sir that I do but the data seems to be damaged and fragmented. Were going to have to get Steel to look over it once we get back, where do you want us now, over?"  
  
"Scout out the rest of the installation and try to find out what became of the base personnel, over." said Slayer.  
  
"Roger that Cmdr. over and out." Paddy picked up his pad and punched a button bringing up a map of the installation.  
  
"Scout out this grave? Easy for him to say he ain't down here with the bogeyman probably lurking around." said Pyro in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn't work.  
  
"Stop that Pyro. Don't be given me imagination any ideas, I'm already havin a hard enough time not shooting every shadow as it is."   
  
"Sure Paddy." said Pyro as he and Paddy forced the doors open in the Ops center, which led to the bulk of the base and found nothing as they scoured room after room.  
  
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It was much the same for Angel as she flew her Thunderbolt through the unusually extensive tunnel system and finding nothing out of the ordinary except that the overhead lights were off even though they were supposed to have a backup battery system that lasted for weeks. She flashed her headlights down another corridor and once again finding nothing she then programmed her computer for a sensor sweep and sat back in her chair and rubbed her eyes. She stared at he tank-killer pulse gun wishing she could use it. Paddy had gotten it for her through a deal made with some R&D officer when he came strolling by their old base. The riffle was one of many juicy little bits of military hardware that Paddy had procured through the deal and since he knew she was into big guns he and the squadron had presented it to her as a gift on her birthday.   
  
Angel was suddenly pulled out of her dreamy state by the beeping of her computer letting her know the analysis was done. At first glance the report seemed pretty unremarkable but then she noticed that sensors had picked up traces of ionized gas something that was left behind from the SP and AT stabbers on a Sabre. "Angel to Slayer I seem to have evidence of a fight down here. Somebody was unloading stabber rounds pretty excessively. I'll take an atmosphere sample to look at when we get back to base."  
  
"Copy that Angel keep up the good work, Slayer out." Replied Slayer over the radio  
  
Angel continued her survey of the tunnels finding more and more of the ionized gas and collected samples as she went.  
  
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Slayer closed his command link to Angel then concentrated on inspecting the buildings. The first place he and Phoenix approached were the power plant clusters that fed energy to the ISDF buildings. What they found was very peculiar. "Phoenix can you get a reading on those power plants my sensors are reporting no activity."  
  
"Negative Slayer," came Phoenix's confused reply after a few seconds of twiddling with her computer, "Looks like they're completely powered down."  
  
"How the hell is that possible? Power plants can't just be turned off, at least not without visible signs of damage." Slayer asked.  
  
"Well it is and experimental base sir, maybe they tweaked these power plants so they could do It." guessed Phoenix.  
  
"But what good does it do to be able to cut power to the big guns you need for defense so quickly? Besides Intel is tellin me these are supposed to be ordinary power plants."  
  
"Yea I guess, so where to next Slayer?" asked Phoenix as she finished her last sensor sweep and archived the data for later examination.  
  
"Let's check the gun towers," suggested Slayer, "If theres to be any signs of a fight I'll bet we can find it there.  
  
"Copy Slayer I'm movin out." said Phoenix as she turned her ship to port and raced off to the nearest set of gun towers taking a total of two minutes to cover the distance.  
  
"Well thats damned peculiar," exclaimed Phoenix as she came within visual range of the main defenses composed of a well organized array of Rattlers, Guardians, and Scion gun towers along with ISDF gun towers.  
  
"What'd you find Phoenix?" asked Slayer as he pulled up beside her Thunderbolt.  
  
"Theres no relay bunker out here to connect our guntowers to a power source." Phoenix observed. "and those Scion lightning towers seem to have more power lungs than their supposed to."  
  
"Looks like our guntowers feed off the excess energy produced by the lungs, Phoenix get me a reading on the lungs and tell me what condition their in." asked Slayer. Silenced answered him for a few seconds followed by Phoenix's confused reply.  
  
"Sir, the lungs appear to be completely powered down just like to power plants."  
  
"That is damned peculiar, all right le-" Slayer was suddenly interrupted in midspeech as his instincts noticed something amiss. Weather it was the way the scant light reflected off the surface or his mysterious sixth sense that tipped him off no one would ever know but all of a sudden one of the guntowers just didn't look right. Slayer altered his course and stooped just short of five feet from the tower.  
  
"What is it Slayer?" asked Phoenix as she pulled up alongside him.  
  
"This tower has a fresh coat of paint." Slayer answered simply.  
  
"So what, the matinence people probably liked their equipment to look shiny and new why is that important?" inquired Phoenix.  
  
"Because this paint is covering up battle damage." answered Slayer as he took a closer look and noticed the slapdash patchwork used to cover up gapping holes and then painted to give the appearance of a gun tower in pristine condition. Once Slayer and Phoenix knew what to look for they soon spotted other gun towers both Scion and ISDF with the same abnormalities.  
  
"Slayer did Centurion-4 have any heated engagements after it went online?" asked Phoenix as she made recordings of what they were finding. Slayer queried his computer and came up with a negative.  
  
"No Phoenix they didn't which means that this was left by whatever visited the base before it went off-line." stated Slayer as he formulated his next move, "Lets check the mobile turrets a little more closely." and putting actions to words Slayer hoped out of his Thunderbolt and walked over to the nearest Rattler 5 meters away with Phoenix following suit. "Hey Phoenix!" shouted Slayer over the radio, "Take a look at these canopies on the Rattlers." Phoenix did and was mildly surprised.  
  
"Their fakes, the originals seem to have been melted off then replaced with these, and in a pretty big hurry too. No sign of the pilot anywhere."  
  
"This doesn't make any sense to me," said Slayer while he examined the weapons systems and found them to be inoperable, "Somebody rides up in here, rips this base a new one, and then tries to hide it." Slayer scratched his helmet in confusion. Who the hell could have been responsible for this, was all Slayer could think of while he returned to his Thunderbolt leaving Phoenix to take snapshots later to be examined in more detail once they returned to base. Five minutes later she had finished and was climbing back into her Thunderbolt so they could finish their patrol. Now that they had a good idea of what to look for they searched the buildings again and found battle damage all over them this time. That along with the absence of any vehicles at all made Slayer a little tense about being here.  
  
"This is like the frikin Twilight Zone come to life Slayer, what do you suppose did this?" Phoenix asked while making more records of what they'd found.  
  
"It could be the rebel Scions that gave us such problems through the wormhole but I'm pretty sure we got most of them before we came back, if any did follow us back through I don't think they'd have nearly enough units to do something like this. I'm still wondering what happened to the base personnel."  
  
"Well after seeing this I bet it isn't very good." Phoenix added in.   
  
"I agree" replied Slayer as he maneuvered his ship to the next building to do another scan for more battle damage which was turning up with more and more frequency than Slayer would have liked.  
  
  
  
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"Find anythin Pyro?" Paddy asked as Pyro sifted through the CO's quarters.  
  
"Not a damn thing Paddy this whole place has been flooded with Cores atmosphere and nothin organic to indicate recent presence survived!" complained Pyro who had searched through the umpteenth officers quarters in search of where the hell everybody was.  
  
"Well take your pictures and come on out man, theres one more room to try then we get out of this spooky hole."  
  
Down the corridor they were in and to the left was another corridor which ended in a set of double doors.   
  
"Man I hate this fucking place!" said Pyro as they made their way to the last room.  
  
"Cant you for once be positive Pyro?" asked Paddy  
  
"I positively hate this fucking place!" answered Pyro.  
  
"Damn man, can you be any more negative?" Paddy asked rhetorically though Pyro didn't take it that way.  
  
"I really hate this fucking place." said Pyro prompting a grin from Paddy as they reached the door and started to pry it open. Once it had been opened all the way they stepped in expecting to find yet another empty room but most definitely not.  
  
"Faith in Begorah what the hell is this!" shouted Paddy as his helmet lights revealed the gruesome scene before him. Pyro leaped into the room after hearing his friends outburst.  
  
"Paddy what th- Holy Shit!" was Pyros rebuttal as he too saw what lay before them. Strewn out along the room were the bodies or in most cases body parts of the Scion and Human personnel at Centurion-4. The entire room was filled to the brim with burned up bodies of soldiers who, judging from their death poses, were taken completely by surprise.  
  
"Where are we Pyro?" Paddy asked Pyro who briefly consulted a map.  
  
"The mess hall." said Pyro cringing a bit at the bad pun he'd just unintentionally made.  
  
"Well how bloody appropriate!" commented Paddy through the gasps of breath he was taking to keep his dinner down. "Think we should report this?" Paddy asked as a joke.  
  
"Uhhh yea go ahead and get Slayer on the horn. He'll want to know about this." replied Pyro as Paddy switched his radio to Slayers command circuit.  
  
"Paddy to Slayer we've found the base personnel." said Paddy into his radio.  
  
"How are they?" inquired Slayer.  
  
"Medium rare sir" answered Pyro barely managing to swallow his bile, "Sir something came up in here and opened a big fuckin can of whoopass on these guys, everything is burned to a crisp and I can't determine the weapon used. I'll take a few samples for the forensics guys back home." he added.  
  
Upon hearing this something inside Slayer clicked and he got a very bad feeling about being at this base and he always trusted his feelings, "Very well, take your pictures and samples quickly and get back to your ships. Emphasis on the quickly gentlemen cause were buggin out."  
  
"Acknowledged sir" was the last thing Pyro said before closing the radio link then he turned to Paddy. "Hurry up and get some samples quick while I make a few snapshots for the album. I want to be far away if and when whatever did this comes back." and with that the two men hurried about their duties setting new records as they did so. In five minutes they had finished and were running flat out it for the exit. But the realization of the danger had come too late.  
  
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"What the hell!" came Angel's voice over the squadron net. "Steel I'm getting some fruity seismic readings coming from the North. Please tell me it's only my twisted imagination."  
  
"I am afraid not Angel" said Steel, "I have just started picking them up myself."  
  
"Angel get out of those tunnels immediately!" commanded Slayer over the radio. "Paddy and Pyro just found an excellent reason why this is a bad place to be so get topside were buggin out! Steel meet her at the tunnel exit then escort her to the rally point at nav6 I have a feeling were going to get visitors."  
  
"Yes sir!" replied Steel and Angel as they kicked their throttles up to full.  
  
"Paddy and Pyro," Slayer called out next, "Where are you?" Slayer asked just as he noticed two shapes out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Check your 3'oclock sir, when the hell do we go?" answered Paddy.  
  
"Yea lets shag it before something unfriendly pops out of the ground." added Pyro.  
  
"First move out to the rally point and wait for Steel and Angel." Slayer ordered  
  
"Copy that CO." said Phoenix as she and the others sped off for the rally point with Slayer in hot pursuit covering the rear.  
  
Slayer then switched on his command line with their dropship and fired off a quick message, "Equinox this is Cmdr. Robertson. We require immediate dustoff. Head to the preplanned rondevue and wait for us, be advised there may be hostiles in the area." Slayer finished his statement and waited for a reply. Moments later his prayer was answered.  
  
"Copy that Cmdr. heading to dustoff, see you there."  
  
  
  
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Angel had cleared the end of the tunnel and saw Steel waiting when the strange seismic readings disappeared. "Uh Steel, the seismic readings just stopped."  
  
"Ja, I know Angel just get out of there and lets move to the rally point."  
  
"Copy Steel I've got your six." replied Angel as the two sped off to the rally point dodging Scion Guardians and gun towers along the way. When they finally reached the rally point less than a few minutes later their Squadmates greeted them.  
  
"Bout time you got here." said Pyro in irritation. Steel then knew instantly that Pyro had found something horrible in the base to shake him to such rudeness like this.  
  
"Sorry Pyro would you rather of had me fly through the gun towers?" came Steels sarcastic reply. But before Pyro could come up with retort a third voice interrupted their conversation.  
  
"Listen up Wraiths were heading to the dust-off for extraction. Steel and Angel take point and lead us through the southeast canyon and make sure our path is clear. Phoenix and I will be right behind you and that leaves Pyro and Paddy to cover our asses." after giving out his orders Slayer paired up with Phoenix while listening to the replies.  
  
"Acknowledged Cmdr. Steel and Angel are moving out." said Steel.  
  
"Copy Slayer I've got your wing." came Phoenix's voice.  
  
"Roger that Slayer, Paddy and Pyro are positioning for butt flap duty." came the eager reply of Paddy who couldn't wait to leave this grave, and with that the Wraiths lined up by pairs in their assigned order and sped off towards the canyon to the south east for their extraction point.  
  
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Far away but too close for comfort a dark figure sat in front of a large screen watching the procession of ships as they sped away in hopes of escape. It amused him so that his master was finally going to let him destroy the vermin in those vehicles instead of capturing them and forcing him to look upon their putrid faces while he hacked them to pieces himself. There came a slight scuttling sound from behind him as a Drone skittered across the steely floor of the command room to its commander's side. "Sir our units are in place and ready to begin the ambush pending your orders." it said in an odd low watery tone.  
  
"Excellent," came the rumbling reply, "Patch me through to the High Master at once and then leave my sight drone."  
  
"As you wish commander." said the Drone as it moved off to accomplish its duties by tapping a few keys on a panel and then leaving his commander be. Seconds later a face appeared on the screen in front of the dark figure and smiled showing off a mouth full of crooked and extremely sharp teeth.  
  
"Greetings Dimitry." said the High Master addressing one of his best field commanders, "What is it that you wish to discuss?"  
  
"Master our units are in position to begin the ambush what are your orders?" asked the Dimitry bowing his head as he did so.  
  
"Terminate with extreme prejudice of course, and remember to let them send out one distress signal, the time has come." after that the High Masters face faded out and was replaced by the overhead view of the Thunderbolts as they attempted to race to safety. Dimitry lifted up his "hand" and placed it into a slot in the console. This connected him directly to his units allowing him to issue orders as soon as he could think them.  
  
"Yes the time has come," said Dimitry as he ordered his units to begin.  
  
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The Thunderbolts sped along the ground at their maximum speed leaving a slight dust trail in their wake. They were approaching a hill that blocked their sight to the entrance of a canyon that would lead them to where the Equinox waited for their extraction. But their flight was cut short by the reappearance of the readings that had prompted their rapid departure in the first place only this time they were much stronger.  
  
"Wraiths stow yourselves behind that hill there in front of us" said Slayer as he followed Steel and Angels lead. "What've you got of me Steel?" inquired Slayer as he brought his ship to a stop.  
  
"The readings are much stronger now Herr Commander they seem to be coming from the entrance to the canyon, wait.. I've seen these readings before, this kind of seismic activity is associated with Maulers sir and a whole shitload of them at that!" Steels voice trailed off as he tried to get a precise picture of what was ahead of them.  
  
"Phoenix to Slayer I have an idea," chirped Phoenix over the comm.  
  
"Go ahead" came Slayers reply as he was reviewing Steels latest sensor readings.  
  
"Sir why don't we have Angel hop out and get us some footage on snipervizz at what's blocking the canyon." offered Phoenix.  
  
"You hear that Angel?" asked Slayer over the radio.  
  
"Yessir I did!" Angel eagerly replied, happy for the chance to use her tank killer even if she didn't get to shoot somebody. She quickly jumped out of her vehicle and climbed slowly till she was almost at the top of the hill. While lying prone she pushed her gun up the slope until it peeked over the top. She then flipped a switch on the sighter scope and a small screen appeared inside her helmet showing her what her scope saw, and her scope saw some very bad news. "Uhhh Slayer I think you'd better have a look at this" said Angel.  
  
"Patch it through to my HUD" commanded Slayer. Up the hill Angel obeyed, flicking a switch located on her helmet sending the image to Slayers video feed in his HUD. After a few moments of delay the signal came through and what Slayer saw on his screen was a chilling sight, blocking the entrance he saw two Attila walkers supported by four Griffin rocket tanks but it didn't end there. Scattered among the odd towers that dotted the landscape he counted no less than fourteen Maulers and twenty Sabres making a vain attempt to hide themselves for an ambush.  
Slayer whistled at what he saw then got on the horn with to the rest of his squadron. "Wraiths I'm patching through Angels snipervizz to your HUDs, try not to feint." Slayer finished his transmission then broadcast the video feed to all the other ships while listening in on the radio for the comments about to pour in.  
  
"Oh shit!" breathed Pyro as he got a good look at the picture on his HUD  
  
"What he said!" exclaimed Paddy staring wide-eyed at the force assembled ahead of them.  
  
"Somebody does not like us I see." said Steel who was still trying to get an exact count on what was assembled ahead of them.  
  
"I think "does not like us" is a bit of an understatement in this case. Phoenix to Slayer, what do we do here boss?" asked Phoenix.  
  
"I'm going to call this in to Command, Steel raise the dropship and have it abort their landing. Tell them to instead orbit our general location and be ready to pick us up in a hurry."  
  
"Steel copies Slayer, I'll relay those instructions right away." Steel quickly set about his task while Slayer switched on the long-range Comm system aboard his craft and pointed the antenna to the nearest satellite.  
  
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It had been a longtime since Robertson had checked in and General Alistar was starting to wonder if the Wraiths had met with the same fate as the other scouting parties they had sent out. Beside him he could see Padisha Burns was shifting his weight from foot to foot as if he was impatient but what few knew was that this was in Scion body language a sign of intense concern. Alistar was about to try to initiate some small talk when he heard a Comm panel in the far end of the circular room come to life with a crackling static filled message.  
  
"Cloud-9 Th- is Wra- Squadron do yo- cop- over?" the voice was unrecognizable and the message badly filled with static. The technician at the station fiddle with some knobs and switches to try and make the message a little more clear. It worked because moments later the voice of Commander Robertson came through loud and clear.  
  
"Cloud-9 this is Wraith Squadron do you copy, over?" In response Alistar yanked the mic. from the technician who was about to reply and spoke.  
  
"Wraith Squadron this is Cloud-9 go ahead Robertson."  
  
"Sir have you been monitoring us on the main viewer?" asked Slayer.  
  
"Negative Commander our spy satellite in that area appears to have shorted out." grumbled Alistar who was still feeling some of the residual anger from that news which had come about ten minutes ago.  
  
"Well then you'd better get a look at this sir." said Robertson who took the signal coming to his HUD and routed it through the satellite so they could see it on the main viewer.  
  
Alistar looked to the center of the room where the large circular screen sat like a table with the center lowered into itself. At first there was only a slur of static but eventually the curtain of electronic snow gave way to a clear video feed that showed what could only be snipervizz. The number of ships didn't daunt Alistar since he frequently delt with forces on a divisional level but then again he wasn't facing this ambush with only half a squadron piloting scoutcraft. Then he noticed the markings on the ships and apparently so did the Padisha for he was the next to transmit.  
  
"Commander Robertson would you please instruct your sniper to switch to thermal sights." a few seconds later the picture once again replaced by static as the video feed changed from one showing objects in the normal visual spectrum to that of an I.R. camera. The craft instantly became almost invisible since their advanced armor prevented most heat loss but the pilots were clearly visible. "It is just as I suspected," stated the Padisha, "those are not our pilots."  
  
"How do you know Burns?" asked Alistar.  
  
"These heat signatures are completely alien to me. Those pilots are neither Human or Scion personnel but those ships are from Centurion-4."  
  
"Wraith Squadron we have confirmed that these are hostiles, do not attempt to engage move to ano-" Alistar was suddenly cut off by the reappearance of the static on the screen and the radio, but this time the signal didn't come back. "Damnit, Lieutenant reestablish contact with the Wraiths!" said Alistar to the technician at the Comm panel.   
  
"I'm attempting to sir but the signals being blocked by something!"  
  
"You mean were being jammed?" asked Alistar.  
  
"Yes sir." replied the Lieutenant bringing to Alistar a sickening realization.  
  
"Red Alert! deploy all defenses, scramble the pilots to their ships, get those ground troops dug in and tell them to be ready for an all out assault." in response to Alistars order klaxons and lights started blaring through out the base rousing personnel out of their sleep and some from out of the bars. Sober pills and caffeine capsules were ingested as Humans and Scions scurried about the base to their battlestations. But just as in Wraith squadrons case the realization of the danger had come too late.  
  
"Sir!" yelled a pale faced commander from across the room, "Outer defenses to the North report a large enemy assault is underway."  
  
"Sir Eastern defenses report they are under attack!" shouted another commander.  
  
"Communications from Western and Southern defenses posts   
are reporting that they too are under attack sir!" shouted a third voice. Alistar looked around the command center which minutes ago had been a sleepy room with only a few officers on duty. Now it was stuffed to the brim full of commanders and majors issuing orders for their troops to move into defensive positions.  
  
"Damn!" whispered Alistar as he looked onto the view screen at the battle unfolding before him. He then realized that all eyes were upon him awaiting his orders. Taking a deep breath he pushed Wraith Squadron out of his mind and concentrated now on his armies' own survival hoping that Robertson could fend for himself while their comrades were otherwise occupied. It was going to be a long day.  
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"-move to ano-" suddenly the transmission was cut off. Slayer leaned foreword towards his computer and attempted to reconnect but to no avail.  
  
"Steel I've lost contact with Cloud-9 and cannot reestablish. See if you can get a signal through." Steel complied, attempting to send out a signal to the satellite but not succeeding. Curious as to why he wasn't coming through Steel listened in to airwaves around him to hear what was going on. He quickly had to stop listening after a high pitched whine erupted out of his internal speaker, a whine which he knew quite well.  
  
"Slayer we are being jammed!" shouted Steel turning Slayers stomach into an icy lead ball. If they were being jammed somebody knew they were there, and if they knew they were there then...  
  
"Uhhh commander one of the Maulers is looking at me." interrupted Angel.   
  
"Angel get back to your ship and get ready to run!" shouted Slayer as he powered up his ship and made ready to bag it. Scanning his terrain map for some sort of salvation he grinned when his eyes fell upon a sector named Murphy's playground. Slayer locked in the coordinates and fed them to the rest of the Wraiths just as Angel finally made it to her cockpit.   
  
"Slayer the enemy is charging our position!" Steel announced seconds before it registered on everyone else's radar.  
  
"Wraiths pair up and run for Murphy's Playground we might be able to lose them there!" then suiting actions to words Slayer and Phoenix surged ahead to the west where there was a narrow canyon that went on for a few klicks before opening up into Murphy's Playground and their only chance for escape. Milliseconds later the other Wraiths followed as fast as they could.   
  
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Steel had already anticipated Slayers order and was in the process of turning when it was given. Though he and Angel were already moving before anybody else their starting position meant they would be in the back. Steel raced his craft as fast as it would go and then some with Angel following on his right slightly to his rear. Eventually he gathered up enough courage to glance over his shoulder to see what his sensors could not show him, he almost wished he hadn't. Despite their speed he and Angel were only 50 meters away from the hill when they came.  
  
Reaching the top and leaping off to sail through the air, Maulers appeared over the hill in pairs followed shortly there  
after by the slower Sabres which upon seeing the escaping ships opened fire with SP stabbers rounds attempting to make use of their superior range but not hitting anything and only succeeding in making it harder for the escapees to maneuver. The Maulers, however, had no such speed limitations and ran on their spidery legs at an ungodly rate for something so huge slowly gaining on the Thunderbolts as they sacrificed tiny amounts of speed to maneuver clear of the SP rounds landing with uncomfortable accuracy.  
  
Steel checked his sensors once more keeping an eye on the Maulers as he entered the most dangerous part of the terrain. The long canyon which offered very little room to maneuver and gave the Maulers a chance to catch up and use those damn FANG cannons once they were right on top of him. Ahead he could see the other Wraiths gain speed finding that they didn't need to maneuver anymore since the Maulers were blocking the shots of the Sabres and they didn't carry any sort of long range weapons. Or at least they "thought" they didn't. Steel quickly ran a few speed calculations and found that the Maulers wouldn't be able to gain enough ground to make use of their FANG cannon before the Wraiths could escape into Murphy's Playground. He even started to relax a little but his break was cut short by a blinding flash to his right side directly between Angel and himself.  
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Had it not ment that somebody's destruction was coming about the intense beam of lighting that suddenly appeared between Steel and herself would have been a beautiful and awe inspiring sight, but the only feelings this particular beam elicited were that of surprise and fear. Before Angel had time to react the beam snaked its way to the right and latched onto her craft. The effect was instantaneous as she was shaken hard and thrown about by the powerful weapons grasp. Warning lights and alarms shrieked within her ship alerting her to massive system failures as the beam of energy melted its way through the light armor and fried the delicate circuitry within. She only had one chance to get away, she had to punch her engines up to full and use her emergency boosters and then hope beyond hope that she could break out of its grasp before it was too late.   
  
Programming in the correct sequence she flipped the manual override which would initiate her boosters while attempting to keep the engines running at full power. At first she only heard the shrill whine of her crafts computer as it continued to report the ships worsening condition, then over the din of commotion she felt the low thrum the one time boosters made as they added in a kick to her declining speed. Through the sparks and smoke of her cockpit she could make out the other Wraiths speeding along attempting to avoid her fate slowly pulling away from her but then they seemed to slow in their rate of departure and ever so slightly she could see that she was pulling out of the Arc stream. Her attacker however was not going to give up that easily. Once the Mauler that had snagged her realized what its target was doing, and further more realized that its target would eventually succeed made one last attempt to strike a killing blow.  
  
Angel was starting to fill up with the hope that she might make it out alive but her attacker had other ideas. Before Angel could fully comprehend what was going on the Mauler used the grasp it had on her ship to lift the Thunderbolt into the air and then smashed it into the left canyon wall right above Steel. A Thunderbolt is composed of the most advanced armor and structural engineering known to man but the impact against the wall shredded half the ship off like so much paper. That impact also nearly knocked Angel unconscious and ended up breaking a few ribs despite the padding in her seat. The Mauler, seeing that its target was still mostly alive, swung the ship into the other wall ripping gaping holes in the armor and exposing new areas for the Arc stream to fry. One of those places was the ships ammunition compartment  
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Steel could only watch silently as his wingman was thrown against the wall directly above him. As he sped along he could hear the pinging sounds made by debris from Angels wreaked fighter bouncing off his hull. Then he saw the ship reverse direction and slam into the other wall ripping off what was left of the stabilizers and tearing out new holes in the ships skin. Moments later he was blinded by a flash as her fighters ammunition cooked off forcing him to look away. When he looked behind him again all that was left of Angel's fighter was a rapidly dissipating ball of shrapnel left far behind. He called up Slayer to report what everyone already knew.  
  
"Steel to Slayer, Angels ship is gone. I didn't see her eject. These bastards have Arc Stream cannons sir, recommend we-" Steel was cut off by another flash of light that passed inches from his hull leaving an impressive scorch mark. Looking back he saw the same Mauler that got Angel zeroing in on him and firing a....Blast canon? His assumption was later proved when another finger of pure destruction reached out to touch his ship again narrowly missing him. Steel reacted quickly to inform his Squadmates of this newest threat. "Steel to Wraiths the enemy is packing Blast cannons!"   
  
"and Mortars!" chimed in Pyro just as a round landed directly ahead of him, the shrapnel tearing small chunks out of his armor. Seconds later seemingly hundreds more fell from the sky adding another danger that the Wraiths had to dodge.   
  
Steel bank sharply left and right attempting to throw off the aim of the Mauler but the narrow canyon provided the perfect shooting gallery. Steel saw the Mauler swivel its head, charge up, and fire. He made a desperate swerve to the left and kept the beam from cutting him down the middle but it instead hit his engine significantly reducing its efficiency and dropping down his speed just enough to allow the Mauler to gain on him. Steel suddenly felt his hair stand on end before taking a look back to see why. Snaking its way across the canyon floor faster than he could fly he saw the wormlike blue tendril of energy from an Arc Stream cannon.   
  
In seconds it would connect with his ship and then it would be over. As a final act of self-preservation he flipped the switch to fire his emergency boosters.....nothing happened. Annoyed he ran a quick diagnostic to see...that he had no boosters because that last hit had severed them from his ship. Steel cursed under his breath, there was no time, the Arc Stream would be on him in moments and he could not hope to defeat a charging Mauler in a Thunderbolt. Steel had given up hope when up in the sky he saw a bright light between the smoke trails left from the Mortars, and knew that he once again stood a chance.   
  
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Zeroing in on her target Angel blazed out of the heavens on jetpack wings towards her target. With the ease of a veteran she kept pace with the Mauler just over its "head" and gracefully brought herself down atop it with a thump by cutting off her packs engines. Finding the rhythm in the Maulers gait she stood up and placed the business end of her tank killer atop the clear canopy. The resulting contact made a strange clicking sound prompting the pilot to look up right into the face of a weapon designed to bring down anything it was pointed at. Though Angel couldn't see its face through the helmet it wore she was positive the expression would have kept her laughing for weeks. Angel pulled back slightly on the trigger and was immediately hurled into the air by the guns potent kick back. She slapped her thigh, hitting a touch pad that reignited the jetpack shooting her forward like a rocket.   
  
  
Steel looked behind him just in time to see the now pilotless Mauler continue its dead run. But with no one to guide it the machine swerved wildly left and right smashing into walls until it finally tripped over its own legs and fell to the ground. The Mauler directly behind it leap over its fallen comrade to pick up pursuit but unfortunately for it the first Maulers Arc Stream was still active and latched onto its underside pulling it down and into the path of a third Mauler who proceeded to crash into it. The resulting fireball was visible to all the Wraiths and they let out a cheer over the radio. Steel looked up just in time to see Angel fly over him like a rocket to the far end of the canyon only a few dozen meters away. Steel threw Angel a salute, which she attempted to return but ended up clutching broken ribs.  
  
"You owe me a drink Steel!" called Angel over the radio.  
  
"You shall have it, and it will be from my private stash." Chuckled Steel as he checked the progress of the remaining Maulers. There were still plenty left but that wreak had halted their pursuit and it would take precious seconds to climb over the wreckage and continue so now all they had to do was worry about dodging the equally deadly mortars.   
  
  
  
  
"You shall have it, and it will be from my private stash." Steel chuckled. Slayer decided to ignore Steels "private stash" which was probably full of something illegal, then again all the Wraiths had some stash of something illegal including himself. Slayers train of thought was suddenly interrupted by his sixth sense turning his blood cold as he suddenly realized that there was a new threat which was later confirmed by an odd radar hit up ahead. Slayer peered through the canopy but couldn't see a thing through the smoke and dust kicked up from the Mortars. Annoyed Slayer sent out a radar pulse straight-ahead and looked at the picture it generated for him. After a few seconds of study Slayer knew why his blood had turned cold, waiting for them at the end of the canyon were two Attila walkers. Thinking quickly Slayer formed a plan.  
  
"Listen up Wraiths," called Slayer, "we got two walkers blocking us up ahead. We only got one shot at this so listen up." Slayer then proceeded to explain his plan. When he finished Angel vectored upwards and out of sight, Phoenix pulled up even with him with Paddy and Pyro ten meters behind also pulled up even, Steel pulled up as close as he could with his damaged engine and tried to keep even with everyone else. Good, Slayer thought everything is in place. They were now two hundred meters to the canyon exit and Slayer still could not see the Walkers. At one hundred meters Slayer could make out their sillouhettes through the Mortar induced fog.   
50 meters....  
  
40 meters.... They passed out Mortar range  
  
30 meters.... The enemy prepared to attack   
  
25 meters.... Slayer got on the Squadron radio  
  
20 meters.... "Open fire!" Slayer commanded while depressing the trigger on his flight stick. Golden fire erupted from the nose of his ship as the chaingun rounds tore through the air straight for the walkers. The first round didn't even have time to hit before others fired from Phoenix joined it at chewing away the armor and causing minimal damage to the walking giant. Then Paddy, Pyro, and even Steel added their firepower to the punch shooting out volley after volley of Fire and Forget missiles. The rockets screamed through the air like demons slamming into the Walkers tough hides causing them to quiver and shake but once again inflicting negligible amounts of destruction. At 15 meters the Walkers fired off shots of their own. 10 meters and the Wraiths were still firing but also dodging the beams of death erupting from the Attila's Blast Cannons, Slayer chose that time to broadcast a quick message.  
  
"Angel now!" and less than milliseconds after the order was given a flash was seen behind the walkers and then suddenly the left walker, specifically its left ankle, erupted into flames as something tore into it from its weakly armored backside completely separating it from the rest of the leg. With one of its legs rendered useless the left walker was now unbalanced and fell on top of the right walker who was in the process of turning knocking it down. 5 meters away and the left walkers pilot must have accidentally hit the trigger because white fire erupted from it square into the other walkers cockpit killing its pilot, immediately after a shot from the right walker came out missing the cockpit completely but instead hitting the left walkers fuel cells lighting them off and simultaneously finishing both of them for good. 3 meters away then Slayer and Phoenix activated their VTOL boosters and barely jumped over the top of the wreckage and straight through the fireball.  
  
Slayer and Phoenix landed with a inaudible thud then proceeded along 50 meters to stop by a hill that marked the entrance to Murphy's Playground named after a one Commander Ian Murphy who's squadron had vaporized an entire Scion assault force by getting them to split up among the many hills and ravines that dotted this particular area then picking them off one by one. But then again Murphy had a full squadron piloting Sentinels, Attilas, and all the other powerful little goodies that one was usually deployed with. Slayer knew better than to try any heroic shit like Murphy. His pilots were severely outgunned and were facing an enemy with obviously new weaponry and tactics. They had to get out of there and report what they had found but whoever the hell was commanding these forces obviously didn't want him to. Slayer waited as Paddy and Pyro easily jumped the wreckage and moved to join him. Steel barely made it over and sparks were visible as the bottom of his hull scraped against what was left of the walkers. He quickly flew over to joined them. That left Angel who gracefully landed beside Steels ship.  
  
"Our pursuers should be at our position within eight minutes Herr commander." Announced Steel.  
  
"So we'd better hide while the hidings good." Said Pyro.  
  
"My thoughts exactly Pyro," commented Slayer, "alright this is what we do, first we split by pairs and get as lost in here as we can, second Phoenix and I will try to contact the dropship and have it meet us here," Slayer said dropping a nav in the other ships HUDs, "on hill 738, Third we'll regroup on hill 738 in one hour for extraction remember to maintain radio silence and no God damn heroics! You see a bad guy avoid him at all costs we don't know what these fuckers are capable of." Slayer looked around to all the ships in front of him wondering how many he would see again in an hour. "Understood?" asked Slayer.  
  
"Yes sir!" everyone called out.  
  
"Then move out, I'll drop a video beacon so we can get an idea of how many of those bitches are coming after us. Frequency Gamma.9." and while the others flew off in random directions Phoenix and Slayer remained long enough to drop a video beacon then flew off. Five minutes later their pursuers came through and promptly destroyed the video beacon. It took them only a matter of seconds to do it but that was all the time the Wraiths needed.  
  
Slayer looked over a freeze frame of the footage shot before the video beacons destruction and counted up the ships he saw. 11 Maulers, at least 15 Sabres, plus a few mixed platoons of Warriors and Lancers, and there was just the slightest bit of a Griffin in the picture who would no doubt be guarding that exit. Slayer cleared the picture from his HUD then powered up and made ready to move to hill 738. Beside him Phoenix did the same and they both moved out each sending a silent prayer to their comrades hoping they would make it through.  
  
  
  
"This is Commander Robertson to Equinox do you copy over?" it was the eighth time Slayer had made the call since reaching hill 738. All the previous seven had answered him with static. For a few moments there was nothing but then suddenly his receiver crackled to life.  
  
"Commander Robertson this is Equinox, glad to see somebody is still alive down there."   
  
"We do our best, listen Equinox we need immediate extraction proceed to hill 738 in Murphy's Playground and be advised there are confirmed hostiles in the area."  
  
"Roger that commander Equinox proceeding to hill 738, ETA fifteen minutes. Good luck down there."  
  
"We'll need it Equinox see you in fifteen, Robertson out." Slayer closed the command link and resumed scanning with passive sensors for any hostiles. Currently there was nothing within range of his scanners that he could detect but passive sensors could very easily miss something a fact that had proven itself many times while he and Phoenix made their way here. Slayer was tempted for a moment to send out a radar pulse but that would be the equivalent of launching a signal flare to any enemy with halfway decent detection equipment.   
  
"So what do we do now Slayer?" inquired Phoenix who has hidden behind one of the unusual tree-like towers that circled around hill 738. Slayer responded from behind one of the huge pillars of light that served as his cover.  
  
"We wait for the others." Silence ensued after that. It was fast approaching one hour since the Wraiths had split up and by now if they survived they should be arriving any minute.   
  
"Slayer I've got two feint signals coming over hill 737 just behind us." Phoenix suddenly announced. Slayer checked his sensors again but came up blank, he then realized that Phoenix was closer to the hill, which explained why he couldn't see them.   
  
"Friendly?" inquired Slayer who was aiming his crosshairs towards the hill in case the answer was no.  
  
"I can't tell, there doesn't seem to be a transponder signal coming off them. Definitely not vehicles though."  
  
"I copy Phoenix, disarm the FAF missiles and wait until we get a visual before we fire." Slayer finished then punched up his visual enhancer and looked the hill over visually for any sign of activity. A short while later two figures appeared running around the base of the hill in the general direction of hill 738. Both of them were carrying a pulse riffle in one hand and clutched a black box in the other. They were clad in the usual ISDF orange flight suits though they were spotted with scorch marks. The pair ran from tower to tower until they had reached Slayer's position. Up close Slayer could see that he two had been burned pretty good but not enough to compromise their suit integrity. The two stopped a few meters short of his position and the taller of the two, no doubt Pyro, took up peeking around the side of the light pillar looking for followers. The shorter one who had to be Paddy walked right up next to Slayer's ship and sat down next to it leaning back against the nose.  
  
"Well fancy meeting you here Slayer." said Paddy.  
  
  
"Looks like you two had a close call." commented Slayer.   
  
"Lad a "close call" doesn't even begin to describe what we went through." Replied Paddy between gasps of breath. The two of them must've had to run like hell to make it here on time.   
  
"I'm sure it'll make an amusing story during the AAR meeting."  
  
"Oh that it will sir." laughed Paddy. But just then Phoenix interrupted.  
  
"Phoenix to Slayer I've got two more signals coming in from the same direction Paddy and Pyro came."  
  
"Friendly?" Slayer asked once again.  
  
"One of them is definitely a vehicle sir, the other one appears to be on foot." Phoenix reported.  
  
"That'd be Angel and Steel, late as always." commented Pyro.   
  
"Its good to see you too Pyro." Steels voice rang out over the secure radio just as he and Angel came into view. The two must have had quite an adventure out in Murphy's Playground because Steels ship was now adorned with multiple burns and a large dent in the nose from some impact. That same impact could probobly account for the missing stabilizer that appeared from this distance to have been torn off, and limping beside his damaged ship was Angel who seemed to have picked up a few more injuries on the way here.  
  
"Did you get us a ride out of here CO?" asked Angel who from the sound of it was in an uncomfortable amount of pain.  
"The Equinox will be here in," Slayer checked the clock in his HUD, "five minutes. You and Steel move to Phoenix's position and hold up there." Angel nodded her head in agreement and limped off as fast as she could. Steel attempted to follow but halfway there his antigrav engines shut off and sent his ship plowing into the hard surface of Core hopelessly bending his stabilizers out of alignment. Seconds later Steel emerged and anyone listening in on his radio would have heard a violent string of German cursing before he reached into his now useless cockpit and yanked out a black box. With a final kick to the ships side he drew his riffle and stalked off towards Phoenix's position.  
  
As promised five minutes later the Equinox appeared hovering over hill 738 preparing to land. Th Wraiths then ran from hiding place to hiding place until they had reached the top of the hill, just as the Equinox was preparing to touch down. The Wraiths formed a semi-circle in front of the Equinox as a defensive line and waited for the ship to land. Slayer glanced behind him and watch the loading doors open before when the Equinox was three meters to the ground and made ready to pilot himself into the cargo bay.  
  
"Wraiths lets go ho-" Slayer called out but was suddenly interrupted by a flash of light from behind hill 737. Slowly a glowing cylinder of fire came into view racing for their position hungry for destruction.  
  
"A Comet XL!" Pyro shouted.  
  
"Wraiths scatter! Equinox abort landing I repeat abort landing!"   
  
The Wraiths complied running or flying for cover as fast as they could. The Equinox flared its engines and raced up and away heading north. Slayer had just gotten his Thunderbolt behind a tower when from behind him came a deafening boom audible even through Cores thin atmosphere. When he stole a glance behind all he could see was a huge fireball where moments before all of Wraiths had been standing. When the dust settled all that was left of hill 738 was a bubbling pool of bio metal. Slayer attention was torn from the pool by the shrieking of his radar informing him of hostiles in the area, a great deal of hostiles in the area all racing for their position.  
Phoenix glanced out from behind the tower she was using for cover and noted that where she had been seconds before was now a deep pool of steaming bio metal. Her radio suddenly came to life pulling her back to reality.  
  
"Slayer to Wraiths we have incoming hostiles from hill 737!"   
  
Phoenix looked at her radar, which wasn't reporting anything in the area. She looked again and realized her radar had been melted off in the fireball. She shot her craft out into the open to face this newest threat. Over hill in front of her the enemy came. Warriors and Lancers flew off the top followed closely by Sabres and Maulers all running, all firing. There were too many to count they seemed to blanket the ground and rush at them begging for the chance to blow them into a million pieces. On instinct the Wraiths opened fire with everything they had. Angel blew off the leg of a Mauler and sent it stumbling. Paddy shot away his pulse riffle while Pyro threw demolition charges until he ran out and then took up firing his pulse riffle with Paddy. Slayer and herself let loose with chaingun and FAF round but nothing they did could stop their relentless advance.  
  
"Wraiths disengage and fall back to the north I have a plan!" Slayers voice suddenly shouted over the radio. Far away Phoenix could see the other Wraiths slap their thighs and shoot up on jetpack wings flying away. Slayer and herself turned around and ran off north with what seemed like an entire army on their heels. Mortars, Missiles, Blast cannons, and stabber rounds exploded all around her as she flew forward jinking and swerving to throw off their attackers aim but still receiving battle scars across her hull from one too many close calls. All around her she could see the other Wraiths were having similar troubles as they flew straight ahead into.....Come to think of it Phoenix didn't know where they were heading.  
  
Phoenix pulled up a terrain map from her ships database and eyed what was ahead of them. Two hundred meters more and they'd have to jump a ramp like hill and beyond that lay...nothing. Beyond that hill was a two kilometer wide canyon with a twelve kilometer deep drop in between the two edges.  
  
"Slayer have you gone mad?" inquired Phoenix.  
  
"No time to explain just take my 9'Oclock and do what I do!"  
  
Phoenix did as she was told and soon the two were racing up hill. 10 meters more and they would fly off the edge.  
  
5 meters.......  
  
3 meters.......  
  
1 meter ....... Then suddenly they sailed off into the sky. Slayer abruptly pointed his nose down and raced to the canyon floor. Phoenix followed suit and flew straight down confident this was the end with her nose pointed at....The Equinox? Before she could utter a sound of surprise she was swallowed into the open cargo bay and her ship brought to sudden stop by the magnetic lock cracking a few ribs from the force. As she glanced out behind her she could see the other Wraiths get swallowed up as the ship raced nose upwards for the sky. First in was Steel who hit the back wall, now the bottom floor, feet first and rolled to make room. Second in came Angel who hit the back wall on her side and appeared to be knocked unconscious. Steel dragged her out of the way just in time for Paddy to come crashing down and get his right leg bent in at very unnatural angle. Pyro followed, his fall cushioned somewhat when he fell on top of Paddy. Once everyone was in the outer doors cranked closed and sealed with a familiar and comforting thump.  
  
The ships orientation changed abruptly as it cleared the canyon edge and switched to horizontal flight dumping the Wraiths who had been on the back wall to the floor eliciting a few groans. Explosions could be heard from outside and the Wraiths quickly grabbed hold of Thunderbolts to keep from being thrown about by the Equinox's evasive maneuvers. Minutes passed like hours as missiles exploded outside the hull and stabber rounds impacted the armor attempting to tear the Equinox apart but to no avail. The dropship dived into the canyon to evade and in mere seconds had passed out of the enemy attackers firing range. The shaking and rumbling of battle was eventually replaced by familiar air turbulence letting the Wraiths know that they were finally safe.   
  
"We've cleared the fire zone Wraith Squadron you can relax now." Came Equinox's pilot over the intercom as she flew skyward back to Cloud-9. The Wraiths all breathed a collective sigh then Paddy spoke up.  
  
"Commander I don't know weather to by you a drink or shoot you in the head!" Paddy exclaimed the pain from his leg very clear in his voice.  
  
"Your alive aren't you?" replied Slayer.  
  
"Unfortunately yes!" said Paddy then turned his attention to Pyro who had landed on him earlier. In minutes they would be trading jokes back and forth and generally warming the atmosphere. Phoenix had clambered out of her ship and was assisting Steel with Angel and eventually getting her to a semi-conscious state. Slayer jumped out of his ship to stretch a bit then sat down and leaned against the Thunderbolts hull. Just as he predicted minutes later Pyro and Paddy had everyone else in the squadron laughing and joking. But for Slayer now was not the time for him to feel safe enough to joke. A new enemy had emerged, a new war was breaking out one that might engulf this entire planet, and there was no doubt in his mind that he and the Wraiths would be sent to the front lines again to do what they do best......Fuck the enemy over then live to tell about it.  
  
  
  
END...Part2  
  
  
  
This here seems to be a good place to leave you hanging. Just who is this new enemy and why does one of their commanders have a Russian name? You'll find out in the next installment of.  
  
BATTLEZONE II: LOST LEGACY by Admiral Kelley  
  
  
My e-mail address is now up in my author profile so if you have any and I mean ANY suggestions that could make this story better I want to hear them. Or you could leave your suggestion in the review box it makes little difference to me.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt3

Battlezone II: Lost Legacy by Admiral Kelley  
Part 3  
  
  
  
  
Please observe that I don't own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to come rip you apart piece by piece. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sitback, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost legacy pt3 by Admiral Kelley and you are still encouraged to send me honest reviews or creative lies depending upon the content of your opinion so I can make part four better.   
  
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Many thanks to those souls brave enough to e-mail me some helpful ideas as well as those of you who put your reputation on the line by endorsing my story with a signed review. Your opinions have all been considered and those that were feasible were integrated into the tale.   
  
A note to Kaeli: Thank you for volunteering to become a soldier in the ISDF army. Your in this part but for the moment you don't get too much "fic time". I have plans for you in the later installments ::evil laugh::. Hope you enjoy what I've written.  
  
  
  
  
There they were. The enemy convoy Intel had been tracking for a week coming over the hill slowly alert for any enemy activity. The escorts consisted of a few Sentry fighters and a single platoon of Warriors all with scanners on full not that it would do any good. The commander of this convoy had all of his escorts out ahead of the transports as they entered the canyon ahead of them.....rookie. The unseen figure who had watched them arrive pulled his eyes away from his binoculars and used a special flashlight to signal another hidden ally behind a cluster of rocks in a Sabre along the rim of the canyon. He then resumed his observation and waited. Just as the escorts fully entered the canyon a huge earthquake shook the ground so violently one of the canyon walls dislodged itself and came tumbling down between the transports and their escorting craft. Seconds later another blast shook the ground and the rock pile the far off Sabre had been using for cover slid down the wall and added to the mess. In less than a minute the convoys defenses had effectively been cut off from the transports leaving them vulnerable. This is just what the hidden attackers had been waiting for.  
  
"Do it Wraiths!" said a voice over the radio and on cue four objects that had been rocks suddenly flashed and were reveled to be Sabres. The eight transports of the convoy halted in momentary confusion, which turned out to be their last mistake. Eight snipers then made their presence known by blasting away the transports pilots leaving smoking holes in the canopy and smoking corpses in the cockpit. The eight figures jumped from the ridges and flew down on makeshift parachutes each landing in front of a different transport. One of those figures was Tim Robertson.  
  
Robertson threw open the door to the transport in front of him and push out the corpse before getting in. Once done he made a quick check to see if he had shot something important and after coming up clean waited for the commanders order to move out. Looking around Robertson saw that he had been the first one finished and sat back for a quick breather while the rest of his squad mates prepared to depart for the extraction point with a wealth of intelligence information in the form of weapons and ammunition in the cargo beds of these transports. This was one of the rare instances where they could take their time since the escorts were trapped behind that rockslide in the canyon. That same rockslide also prevented the base at the end of the canyon from sending reinforcements to greet them. According to Intel this convoy had been poorly guarded and ripe for the plucking with nary a Scion for kilometers around to bother them. Robertson was pulled back to the present by his commanders gruff voice.  
  
"Wraiths lets move it to extraction!"   
  
"I'm all for that, this place has me skin crawlin." came another voice that had to be Jack O'Riley in one of the other transports, and with that all twelve pilots turned away and flew for the extraction point.  
  
The Wraiths had been backtracking the convoys path for five minutes when they came upon a small hill. Thinking nothing of it they flew up and over it..... and right into the convoys supposedly non-existent rear guard composed of a very large number of Titans and Warriors. Before the Wraiths could react the Titans fired off their Arc cannons and melted a quarter of the squadron.  
  
"Wraiths fall back to secondary E.P.!" shouted the commander in his Sabre. Just as they were turning the Titans second volley found their mark vaporizing both the CO and XO as the others ran.   
  
It was pure hell for Robertson who had to flee in a bulky slow transport thats only good point right now was it was faster than the Titans and would soon get him out of range. Then the radar screen in the cockpit beeped informing him that there were new units within sensor range. Since the transport was a Scion craft his squadron was in red while the other Scions were displayed as green and right now half the screen was blotted out with solid green advancing towards him. Throwing a glance at the rear view camera he saw the enemy come over the hill behind him like rushing water but there was something wrong with them.   
  
Peering closer one would see that they were not Scion craft but horrible multi legged monsters with snapping jaws and blood red eyes running after him with their intent clearly stated by the rapid quivering of sharp jaws as they approached him with mad hunger in their eyes. Robertson dodged his ship left and right as fast as it would go but the monsters behind him just sped up until one of them had pulled even with him. In a swift movement one of its tentacles whipped out and into the cockpit yanking him through the canopy. Robertson felt himself being thrown in the air and just as suddenly he started to fall. Gazing down he could see the creature waiting for him with open jaws. Robertson slapped his thigh in an attempt to activate his jetpack but to no avail. He plunged downwards until he landed within the things mouth and its jaws snapped shut sealing him in darkness.  
  
  
  
Slayer's eyes snapped open and for a brief moment franticly searched for a way out of the things mouth until he realized where he was. Slayer glanced around to see that he was still within the Equinox's cargo bay and all the other Wraiths were catching some much needed shuteye. Underneath him he could feel the rumble of the Equinox's massive engines through the deckplates and he once again leaned back against his Thunderbolt to relax. The nightmare he had was in fact one of Wraith squadrons first missions ever when it was commissioned under the leadership of Commander Martin Freeman and his XO Lieutenant Charlie White. Except for the monsters his dream was a pretty accurate depiction of what had happened. They were sent to capture the convoy for intelligence purposes and their escape route was thought to be clear but unfortunately the convoy had picked up a rear guard along the way composed of a mess of Titans and Warriors that obliterated a good chunk of the squadron on the first engagement.   
  
The Wraiths had turned tail and ran for it which prompted more losses, in the end all the Sabres were lost and Slayer was the only one who managed to get a transport to the extraction point. All the other surviving Wraiths, Paddy, Pyro, Angel, Phoenix, and Steel had to dump their transports then jetpack it to the dropships.  
  
Slayer then suddenly wondered exactly what time it was. Using the Thunderbolt for support he hoisted himself up and gave his helmet a soft tap activating his faceplate HUD which displayed his own body condition as well as the option to examine the other Wraiths conditions though he rarely had to use it. Slayer chuckled to himself at the thought of the millions of dollars that went into designing and manufacturing computerized suits capable of relaying to soldiers all kinds of info only to have the soldiers use it for telling time and rarely anything else. After his suit conferred with the Equinox's computer the current time was prominently displayed and now the internal computer would keep track of it until such time as he shut the HUD down. It was currently 0100 which ment he'd been asleep for almost four hours. That ment the Equinox should be within sight of Cloud-9 and prepping to land. Slayer's guess was confirmed when moments later the ship made a hard turn to port sending the unprepared Slayer to greet the floor and rousing the other Wraiths out of their sleep. First up were Steel and Pyro both of whom had escaped without serious injury followed shortly by Phoenix who only suffered from some fractured ribs.  
  
Angel and Paddy, however, had no such luck during the mission. Paddy who had broken his right leg crawled over to Phoenix's Thunderbolt and hoisted himself to a leaning position. He reached down and carefully tapped his broken leg to be sure his suits temporary cast was holding up. After he was sure the cast was in perfect condition he picked up his make shift crutches courtesy of Pyro who still felt kinda bad for landing on him and hobbled over to Slayer's fighter where the other Wraiths were gathering. Angel unfortunately had been the victim of multiple broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and if her suits bio-sensor wasn't faulty some internal bleeding. Since she couldn't move under her own power due feeling like shit Steel hoisted her up and carried her which could have been painful if Angels suit hadn't released some pain-killers into her bloodstream beforehand.  
  
Slayer had just gotten up and regained his footing on the now angled floor when the ship made another abrupt turn and leveled off. This time Slayer managed to grab hold of his Thunderbolt and kept from having a reunion with the floor. The others adapted the same way except for Steel who was unbalanced with Angel on his shoulders and nearly fell before Pyro caught him by his suit and kept him up. The rumbling of the deckplates eventually grew softer as the ship dropped down to the landing pad below. There was the usual final flare of engine power which ment the pilot was thinking of her living cargo for once and then the muted thump as the cargo bay contacted the ground and the ship quivered slightly making herself comfortable. Since the Wraiths still had their life support suits on and the bay had not been filled with human friendly atmosphere the pilot skipped the usual depressurization procedure and flipped the switch to open the doors. The doors swung open revealing to them a Cloud-9 that was not familiar.  
  
The whole base look like, and definately had been, a battlezone. Strewn all about were the incinerated hulls of countless ships some of them burned beyond recognition. Throughout the base Scion and ISDF scavengers rolled along collecting the bio-metal scrap and clearing traffic arteries clogged by useless hulks. Human and Scion personnel were running everywhere leading Healers and Service trucks to repair the damage done to the buildings.   
  
Slayer looked about to find somebody in authority to tell give them directions when a patrol of Attilas marched past causing the ground to shake in their presence. All of them had deep craters and scorch marks everywhere with bits of armor looking like it had been chewed on. Following in their wake was a running soldier who seemed to be moving eraticly around the base. Slayer thought it best to question somebody else but apparently Paddy didn't for he took action by calmly walking out and trying to flag the man down with no success. Paddy then stood closely to the side of the soldiers path and when the man ran by again Paddy shifted his weight to his left foot and stuck out a crutch sending the frantic runner to the ground.   
  
Upon impacting the private curled into the fetal position and refused to move, only curling up as tight as he could.   
  
"Were in a bit of a situation lad do you think you could give us a hand?" asked Paddy while prodding him with his crutch. The private refused to answer and only curled up tighter if that was possible. Annoyed Paddy rolled the man until he was on his back and could see his face. The private opened his eyes and upon seeing Paddy let out a scream. Thankfully the man hadn't broadcast his outburst but the look on his face convinced Paddy to let go sending the private back to his quivering fetal position. By this time the other Wraiths had joined him.  
  
"Maybe we should try someone else Paddy." Offered Phoenix.  
  
"Yea he seems pretty out of it." commented Angel from her perspective on Steels back.   
  
"Donna worry I have a solution for this." Paddy reached into one of his outside pockets and pulled out a flask with a Red Cross on it proclaiming that the contents were supposedly medicinal. Paddy then turned the Private over again and waited for him to scream. When he did Paddy rammed the flask into a special connector on the faceplate, which allowed the user to drink from an outside container. The private's surprise was evident when his eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets. The man only held his shocked face for a few moments before the stuff kicked in seeming to calm him down greatly. After about two more seconds Paddy removed the flask and returned it to a pocket.   
  
"Now then private," asked Paddy putting emphasis on the mans lower rank, "perhaps you could tell us what happened here and give us a few directions?" Paddy inquired.  
  
"You mean you *hic* don't *hic* know?" he responded. Paddy motioned to his broken leg with a crutch and told him.  
  
"We've been otherwise occupied lad, now what happened?" the man looked up at Paddy and seemingly tried very hard to remember the events of the last few hours momentarily before the light bulb went off.  
  
"We were attacked *hic* by unknowns piloting stolen vehicles, a large group of them *hic* broke through the northern defenses and attacked here. I was *hic* on patrol duty when they came, I'm the *hic* only man left in my platoon....." the private would have gone on further if Slayer hadn't chosen then to intervene.  
  
"Private we're in need of a medical facility could you point us in the right direction?" asked Slayer. The private looked like he was about to respond when his eyes suddenly glazed over, closed, and he fell asleep. Slayer attempted to verbally wake him but all he could get out of the man was a snore.  
  
"Paddy what the hell was in that flask?" Slayer asked while trying to prod the man awake.  
  
"Oh just a wee concoction me mother used to use on me when I was a rowdy young lad," Paddy responded then scratched his helmet, "mayhaps I over did the dosage a wee bit."  
  
"Is there any way to wake him?" asked Slayer.  
  
"Sir with the amount the lad guzzled leprechauns could be dancin in his jockeys and he'd keep on sleeping. I'd say a minimum of five hours before he wakes." Paddy responded a little embarrassed.  
  
"Great how do we find the med. bay now?" Phoenix asked while clutching her cracked ribs. Slayer said something to Paddy over a private line and the two searched the soldier until Paddy found what they were looking for. He held up a data pad for the Wraiths to see.  
  
"Well it seems the private here was kind enough to lend us a map lass, " Paddy looked over to Slayer who was in the process of dragging the unconscious man to a side building so he wouldn't be run over by patrols, "got our map commander, are we fixed for transportation?"   
  
  
Slayer sat the private against the wall of a relay bunker and then looked up to Paddy. In response to his question Slayer pressed a button on his belt and behind the Wraiths the two remaining Thunderbolts slowly pulled out of the Equinox then stopped right behind them. The sound of the Thunderbolts engines didn't carry through the thin atmosphere of Core so Slayer pointed behind them to the waiting ships and gave instructions.   
  
"Steel and I will pilot those Thunderbolts while the rest of you sit and ride." Slayer then climbed into his ship and made ready to depart when the first comment came as the others climbed on.  
  
"Slayer are you crazy, didn't you see what Steel did to the last Thunderbolt?" that joking objection sounded like Pyro and it wasn't long before Steel looked over to him and put his hands on his hips which wasn't easy with Angel on his shoulders.  
  
" At least *I* got my ship to the extraction point. I remember you having to walk and just for that you carry Angel to the med. bay"  
  
  
"Yippee!" came the unexcited reply from Angel.  
  
"Point taken giver here" Steel did just that handing her off and climbing into the ship while closing the canopy. The Wraiths then jumped onto the noses of the Thunderbolts with Angel and Pyro on Steels ship and Phoenix and Paddy on Slayers. Slayer took the lead since he had the actual map driving them past old hulls and bio metal mining stations until he came upon an entrance to Cloud-9's extensive tunnel system.   
  
*******  
  
It turned out the tunnels weren't in any better shape than the rest of the base with cave ins and wreckage everywhere. Eventually they came to a stop in front of another cave in and with a door to their right. Slayer signaled the Wraiths and they all jumped out and moved to the door except for Steel and Slayer who reached into their cockpits to pull out a total of five black boxes before joining everyone else at the door.  
  
Before Slayer reached for the pad to enter the med. bay he pressed another button on his belt that sent the ships on autopilot to the nearest service bay some distance from where they now stood. Pyro watched them leave and started to chuckle to himself.  
  
"Commander Williams is gonna throw a hissy fit when he sees what we did to his ships." said Pyro referring to Gold Squadrons commander who's temper tantrums sometimes rivaled that of General Alistars especially when his ships were "borrowed" and then only a few returned.   
  
"More likely he'll try to have us drawn and quartered." replied Paddy from his side. "Is anybody home Slayer?" Paddy asked.  
  
"Lets find out" answered Slayer as he walked up and punched in a code on the numeric pad to the door then waited while the computer summoned medical personnel. Seconds later the cool crisp voice of a woman answered.  
  
"This is Dr. Emrid please identify" Slayer pushed a button on the panel to respond.  
  
"Commander Tim Robertson with Wraith squadron requesting medical services."  
  
"Oh it's you Slayer, go ahead and step inside." The Wraiths looked to the side where the door opened into the decontamination chamber. They stepped inside and the doors sealed. Those that could went over to the wall and did the usual spread eagle while the chemicals were sprayed. Paddy stood on his good leg and made out as best he could while Angel just sat up against wall not bothering to exert herself. They closed their eyes when the chemicals stopped and the flash came to dry them off. Environmental pumps came online and in five minutes explosive decompression was no longer a concern. Paddy removed his helmet while the other Wraiths did the same and helped Angel with hers. Slayer walked up to the exit door and typed in another code that opened it revealing the pristine white medical bay which seemed to be half full at the moment with hysterical soldiers like the one they had met outside.   
  
As soon as the doors opened nurses rushed in to hurry away Angel and Paddy who had the worst injuries. The others were pushed to a communal shower where they disrobed and put up the equipment they brought with them and fed their battle suits to a machine that would repair any damage done during deployment while the Wraiths got cleaned up and checked out. After they finished washing up the squadron was issued disposable hospital robes to be used until their clothes came back from the machine. The nurses sat them down on med. beds and summoned the doctors to come and fix them up before rushing off to prepare another batch of pilots and soldiers that arrived.  
  
  
**********  
  
  
The Wraiths had been lucky to escape the trap set for them with only the injuries they had. All of them ended up with cracked ribs of different severity. In addition Paddy had bent his leg pretty bad and had to submerge it for an extended time in a nutrient bath to heal it. Though the treatment was supposed to cure him completely his leg was still tender and he was ordered to go easy on it for a few days. Angel had in fact been suffering from internal bleeding and a great deal of broken bones that required her to stay for extended treatment. Slayer remembered when Dr. Emrid gave them the news.  
  
"Srgt. Simmons will have to spend twenty four hours in the hibernation regenerator other than that I hereby pronounce the rest of you cured and free to go." the Wraiths all shuddered slightly at the mention of the "hibernation regenerator" or Jell-O mold as it was known in layman's terms. Though the machine could perform medical miracles it was still an unpleasant feeling to be floating stark naked in a tube filled with cold wiggly goo and only a tube stuck down your throat for air. After the patients had been revived it left them with the feeling of millions of bugs crawling around under their skin for hours. It was a feeling that all the Wraiths had unfortunately aquatinted themselves with before and one that they tried to avoid at all costs. After they had been given back their suits and had dressed the Wraiths minus one walked out of the med. bay sliding their pulse riffles back into their holsters while clutching their helmets in one hand and black boxes in the other. With Slayer and his map in the lead they walked down the endless halls intent on finding their barracks.  
  
All around them they could see signs of a struggle in the corridors with some of the light fixtures blown out from power surges and weapon scorches everywhere resulting from a heated firefight. There was the occasional bloodstain marking where bodies had fallen and then were removed and judging by the smell both Human and Scions had been burned up in here. It didn't take too long to find their barracks since the halls were strangely uncrowded and Phoenix had the foresight to hang up the squadron crest on the entrance door when they first arrived. Inside they expected to find the children sleeping or still settling in after a hard day of fighting instead what they found was a darkened room devoid of all signs of inhabitants. After staring in shock for a few moments the Wraiths put their gear on one of the cots then went in and searched for any of the newbies or any sign of their gear. Finding none they all scratched their heads in confusion. Pyro was the first to speak out.  
  
"Where the hell did everybody go?" and then as if on cue a shape detached itself from the wall and seemed to walk in their direction. Slayer's hand was halfway to his holstered riffle before he realized who it was but the rest of the Wraiths had no such knowledge and drew their weapons to shoot. Before they could blast the Padisha into tiny bits Slayer leaped out to the shape and pulled it to the ground using his body to cover Burns.  
  
"Don't shoot!" Slayer shouted from atop Burns directly back at the Wraiths. The others blinked in surprise but then reluctantly reholstered their weapons. Slayer stood and helped the Padisha who had long since decloaked to his feet.. "Damnit Burns thats a good way to get yourself whacked!" Slayer scolded.  
  
"Sorry but I could not resist seeing the looks on your faces." chuckled Burns. He then noticed that the troops were standing there with dumbfounded looks on their faces and quickly relieved Slayer of the responsibility of having to explain. "How rude of myself," he said turning to the Wraiths assembled before him, "I am Padisha Burns of the Scion collective." Burns held out a hand in greeting and the other Wraiths warily took it one by one.  
  
"Pleased to make your acquaintance Burns, sorry about almost filling you with holes a second ago." offered Pyro as he shook   
  
"Please don't be I keep forgetting the reaction that trick brings from the elite personnel." Burns admitted a little ashamedly.  
  
"Just answer me two things Burns," interrupted Slayer, "1). What the hell are you doing here and 2). Where's the rest of my squadron?"   
  
Burns looked past the Wraiths and motioned with his hand to a shadowy corner of the barracks room. "That's what I asked him but he wanted to wait till you were here."  
  
A collective "Who" resounded through the Wraiths as they looked to the corner. Then from out of the shadows a figure emerged and stepped into the light revealing itself to be General Alistar.  
  
"Good to see you're all alive and kicking." offered Alistar.  
  
"Same here sir." responded Slayer walking up to Alistar and shaking hands his questions momentarily forgotten. Alistar motioned for the Wraiths to sit down on the cots. They complied and looked upon Alistar expectantly.  
  
"Now to answer your questions Slayer the Padisha and I are here because we have new operational orders for you that I cant trust to send over the com. lines. But before I get to that your probobly interested as to why half your squadron is missing."  
  
"Quite so." answered Slayer while crossing his arms.  
  
"I'm afraid that due to manpower shortages caused from the recent attack we've had to reassign your troops to fill in the gaps and it doesn't look like you'll be getting them back any time soon. For now you'll have to stay a six-member squadron until we can get new recruits to fill in the holes. I might be able to get you a support group to help reinforce you but chances a pretty slim." Alistar finished.   
  
Slayer wasn't too surprised since enlistment had been at an all time low during the Scion war and many people were lost but he was extremely unhappy that his reinforcements were being reassigned. It had been hard enough to pry away new recruits from the AAN for a Spec Ops squadron, a squadron which they had a history of disliking, but to actually get them some ships to fly had taken nothing short of divine intervention. Slayer knew there was no point in arguing and quietly sat back feverently hoping that maybe there would be some good news in this briefing to counter the bad. Alistar eyed him for a second to make sure didn't have anything to say and then continued.  
  
"Now the reason for all the secrecy is that I'm going to put you on to full time duty as soon as you've recovered which means your officially going back to non-existent status effective immediately." Alistar handed Slayer a pad with some official mumbo jumbo on it that essentially said his squadron was now a black ops unit that answered only to the ISDF.   
  
"Sir were only rendered a black unit under wartime conditions. If I may ask sir who did we declare war on?" inquired Slayer looking down at the document to see if the words had changed since the last time he had seen them at the start of the first Scion war.  
  
"We were hoping you could tell us. I'm sure you noticed all those old skeletons outside."  
  
"Yes sir we did." replied Slayer.  
  
"Well you'll be semi-happy to know that most of those hulks weren't piloted by our men. We confirmed that all are stolen units though to this point we don't know who or what is responsible. Thats where you come in." Alistar motioned to the black boxes piled on the cots, "judging by the conditions you were in when you arrived I'm sure you've gathered some interesting intelligence data."  
  
"Oh that we have sir." offered Paddy.  
  
"Right then," said Alistar while turning to leave, "I'll expect a full report in two hours. Take that time to decipher what you got and then meet me in room 234a for the AAR meeting until then I bid you all good luck and goodbye," Alistar turned to Burns who had taken to examining the ceiling during Alistars briefing, "Come along Padisha I have a few more stops for us to make." Burns complied and soon the two had exited the room headed off to handle more errands they couldn't trust to the comm lines.  
  
Slayer looked at his timer in the HUD and then motioned for the other Wraiths to gather around for their assignments. "Okay here's how we'll do it. Phoenix and I will examine the photographs taken and see if we can figure out how Centurion-4 was attacked. Pyro I need you to take your samples down to forensics and get some lab results," Slayer looked over to Steel and Paddy who would end up with the worst jobs of all, "Paddy and Steel will sift through all the sensor data and see if you can get anything useful out of it. You have your assignments get'em done and meet up with everyone in room 234a in one hour fifty nine minutes." Slayer concluded.  
  
The Wraiths complied and moments later they had dug out their maps from their personal gear left behind in the barracks and moved out to find some answers to questions too deadly to ignore.  
  
**********  
  
"You have failed me." The voice declared from across the room. Dimity could only prepare himself for the onslaught that was sure to come. Moments later it did in the form of a blade whooshing through the air and penetrating through his midsection slicing him in half. The pain was incredible but Dimitry knew the High Master was being slightly merciful to him seeing as he had served so well in the past. In truth he felt a sort of guilt for receiving such mercy since he had been present for the punishment of his former commander when he too displeased the High Master and saw just what he thought of failure. An immense pain more intense than anything he had experienced replaced the hurt from his halfing and filled his entire being to the core. Dimitry felt no anger at being punished; he had failed the High Master and deserved everything that was coming to him.  
  
The horrible sensation seemed to continue on for endless cycles before it gradually subsided and Dimitry was left quivering on the floor without legs to move him only able to use his arms so he could face the High Master and receive the rest of his rightful punishment. But surprisingly no more pain came forth and Dimitry was left for a few nervous moments wondering if he were already dead. The moment was broken when from out of the darkness a figure floated into a pillar of light, the only light source currently in the room, and stood there its face still hidden in shadows but definately looking at him seeming to be deciding his fate. After a few seconds the High Master turned his back to him and spoke in a low dangerous tone reserved only for those who had wronged him.  
  
"Consider this a warning Dimitry. Don't fail me again." Declared the High Master. Seconds later a small horde of Drones came into the chamber to take what was left of Dimitry to the healer where he would be repaired and returned to duty. As the final pieces of Field Commander Dimitry were carried away the doors shut behind the exiting Drones leaving the High Master to his own thoughts.  
  
Had he been capable of it the High Master might of felt a twinge of guilt for punishing Dimitry. After all he had preformed brilliantly in attempting to wipe out the Human and Scion scum that infested this world that was rightfully his. But he had failed to eliminate the ISDF command center as ordered when he foolishly attempted to destroy the entire spaceport with a multi-pronged attack on all sides instead of a concentrated rush. Though he did manage to inflict some heavy casualties the vermin would reinforce with outside troops just as the High Master had hoped but it would still be organized and much faster with the their HQ intact. In truth the High Master never expected Dimitry to succeed in his task of destroying the command center seeing as how he was always a bit impulsive but all of his other capable Field Commanders were busy at the moment with something more important.  
  
Dimitry's punishment was largely for the failure to destroy the scouts that had come to investigate the pacified ISDF outpost. Their escape ment his plans would have to be rushed along before the intelligence they had gathered revealed whom they were fighting against. If they knew who their enemy really was they would no doubt bring in everything in their collective arsenals to drive him away again. Time now was of the essence; he would have to tell his Field Commanders to step up production in preparation for the purge.   
  
**********  
  
At the appointed time in room 234a the Wraiths gathered for the AAR (after action review) meeting. The sizeable load of data and physical evidence they had returned with was now reduced after two hours of work into small compact data disks to be used during their presentation. Inside they took their seats at the rectangular table and waited for Padisha Burns and General Alistar to arrive. A minute later one of the doors opened and Burns walked in and took a seat at the end of the table. Beyond the door Alistar was in the process if dressing down a lieutenant for not having some sensor repaired due to laziness or something else along that line. After a few prolonged seconds of shouting fast running steps could be heard moving down the corridor outside moving away from the meeting room. Alistar came in and took his seat next to Burns after the steps had faded away. This was Slayers cue to start the presentation.  
  
Slayer depressed a button on the tabletop and the lights dimmed. In the center of the table a panel slid away and a projector was raised pointing at the wall. Slayer got up and inserted his data disk into a side slot. The projector hummed for a brief moment while it absorbed the data then cast a picture on the darkened wall. The image projected was essentially a terrain map of detailing their operation with symbols to mark where something had happened. He took about five minutes to explain the basic out line of events from the insertion right up to the extraction in the middle of a freefall.   
  
At the end of his speech Slayer turned the presentation over to Phoenix who inserted her disk and proceeded to go over the visual data garnered from their inspection of Centurion-4.  
  
"I took the images you see here and ran them through the weapons database to see if there were any way to identify the weapon used and came up with a few surprising results."  
  
"Such as?" inquired Alistar.  
  
"The weapon marks on the buildings are remarkably similar to the ones left behind by Scion lightning weaponry but not identical. In fact the damage shows remarkable similarity to a weapon called the Bolt Buddy used near the end of the Scrap Wars in the 60's." At the mention of that weapon Alistar and Burns seemed to wince with remembered dread at what those cannons had been capable of. After all both of them had been at one time commanders of a squadron and had the bad luck of facing them in the field. Phoenix allowed a few seconds to pass before moving on.  
  
"Further more I have located evidence of other Scrap War weaponry on numerous buildings throughout the complex," she pushed a button on her hand held remote changing it to a view of three different structures, "this damage here for instance appears to have been caused by a fusion beam more commonly known as a Solar Flare," she pointed to another picture of a wall that must have looked like Swiss cheese before it was hastily patched up, "and here we can see evidence of damage done by primitive AT and SP stabbers" Phoenix would have gone on if Burns hadn't interrupted then.  
  
"Are you saying that all the weapons used against Centurion-4 were are from the Scrap War?"  
  
"I can safely say that the vast majority of them are sir. There are some others present as well that we haven't been able to identify but it is now a fact that no modern weapons were employed against Centurion-4."  
  
"Shows us a picture of the unidentified weapon marks." Ordered Alistar. Phoenix complied and the picture was changed to one showing a wall with three easily visible gashes.   
  
"Those look like claw marks." commented Burns.  
  
"Yes thats what I think are but as to what made them I don't have a clue," Phoenix answered and then reached to remove her disk from the projector, "If theres no other questions I believe my part of the presentation is over," Phoenix took one last look to make sure there were actually no more questions then removed her disk from the projector and took her seat.  
  
Next up was Pyro to explain the forensic evidence found at the scene. He inserted his disk and used an old targeting laser now converted to a temporary laser pen to outline what he had found.  
  
"It appears as though the enemy took control of the environmental systems and somehow and flooded the base with Core's atmosphere. Based upon the remains of the bodies it effectively killed off all the personnel who weren't wearing pressure suits. Those who did survive regrouped in the mess hall and tried to make a last stand. From the evidence left behind whatever weapon they used on them was fired twice. Once to kill the survivors and once again to burn the corpses that remained after their attack." He finished his report and waited for the questions to come.  
  
"Can you identify the weapons used?" asked Alistar.  
  
"Not with any certainty sir," replied Pyro who pressed a button on the remote device for the projector to bring up another picture, "as you can see from the condition of the flesh the marks resemble Scion lighting weaponry and the old Blot Buddy from the Scrap Wars. However the marks differ too much from existing records for me to think that the weapon was either. My conclusion is that this is a variation of the Arc cannon employed by Scion Titans but on a small scale." Pyro stood and waited to see if there were any more questions. Surprisingly there weren't and he was allowed to sit. That left Paddy and Steel whit the sensor data collected from Centurion-4s Ops center.  
  
The duo made their way up to the projector and inserted their disks. Paddy and Steel then took up positions on either side of the screen for presentation purposes. Alistar nodded to them to start. Steel spoke up first.  
  
"Ja Herr General" at hearing this Slayer's interest suddenly peaked a little higher. One of Steels character traits was that his German accent got slightly thicker when he was nervous. He and Paddy must have uncovered something interesting. "We managed to recover little of the data left behind in the Ops center. Apparently someone scorched the data coils so we were unable to uncover any video or audio data but the radar logs were mostly intact." Steel pressed a button and the projector ran a sped up clip of the radar logs over the last few hours. At first the only thing displayed were the symbols representing the various buildings then the symbols started to change color indicating they were under attack but the radar failed to pick up any other ships in the area save for the base defenders which maneuvered about wildly. Eventually the outer defenses all turned black and the radar cut off replaced by static. The clip ended and Paddy stepped forward to explain what everyone had seen.  
  
"Now what you saw was the first ten minutes of the attack against Centurion-4. After the attackers penetrated the front defenses we lose all data. The rest of the files are corrupt beyond recovery, which can be attributed to the data scorching. What we canna put aside however is that the radar and failed to pick up any attacking craft. This implies that the craft had a cloaking device of some sort." Alistar then interrupted with a question.  
  
"Is there any record of the vehicles that attacked."   
  
Paddy shifted his weight slightly, which for those who knew him ment he was reluctant to answer the question. Steel saved him the trouble. "There was one picture that survived the scorching Herr General," Steel said in an even heavier accent, "it apparently was taken by a helmet cam. The picture itself is a little blurry and only shows a small section of the attacking ship but one detail stands out." Steel pushed a button on the remote and projected the image onto the wall.  
  
The room was silent for a moment when the picture was displayed. The Wraiths simply stared in mute shock. Burn's jaw dropped. Alistar remained expressionless but his face had gone pale. The background was a blurry gray section of the hull taken as the ship flew by at what had to be an alarmingly fast pace. But displayed prominently on the center was symbol not painted on any known craft for over forty years. The demonic silhouette, the blood red eyes and the red star all resembled an identification marking for a squadron thought to have been eliminated. But there it was right there in front of them and the reappearance of that marking could possibly mean only two things. That somebody was playing a sick joke.  
  
Or that the Furies were back.  
  
  
***********  
  
Slayer walked down the corridor in silence. Like a man about to be executed he made his way to the base canteen. Right now he could use a stiff drink. Before he went inside he checked himself in his helmet faceplate. After seeing what the enemy could do to a bases air supply he wasn't about to go anywhere without his suit. Slayer put on a fake smile so as to disguise his unhappy demeanor and walked in.  
  
The canteen was not its usual self; Slayer realized that at once. For one thing there weren't any drinking contests going on between the Scion and Human personnel. For another thing the room was only a dull roar of noise as opposed to the blasts of sound that could easily be felt outside. There were also fewer patrons then the norm and none of them were unconscious on the floor. Slayer made his way to the bar table and ordered up a drink. One of the perks the ISDF offered was rationed but free liquor. Slayer took his drink and walked into the center of the room but an all too familiar voice stopped him.  
  
"Slayer what the hell are you doing here? Hasn't the AAN canned your ass yet?" Slayer stopped and slowly turned around to greet the only person who could possibly have said it. There off in one of the corner booths sat Sahra "Kaeli" O'Harra commander of Hellfire squadron with a drink in one hand and a data pad in the other. For the first time since the AAR meeting Slayer allowed himself a smile that was not forced. He walked over to the booth and greeted her with a hug.  
  
"Kaeli how the hell are you? Haven't heard from you since Polar Glory."   
  
"I'm fine as could be expected I guess. Fortunate that I ran into you." Kaeli said as she and Slayer took a seat.  
  
"Why is that?" Slayer inquired.  
  
"Take a look" Kaeli handed Slayer the data pad she had been reading over earlier. Slayer gave it a brief glance and then glanced at it again. Quickly he skimmed the top to find out where the orders had originated.   
  
"General Alistar," Slayer mused, "the old mans been busy I see." Slayer just couldn't believe his luck. The support squadron Alistar promised he would try to get was going to be Hellfire squadron. Though they were a front line unit Hellfire had always been a competent lot. They would have to adapt to black ops pretty quickly but it really wasn't that big of an adjustment and Slayer had worked with them before. Hellfire would do just fine for his purposes. Slayer looked up from the pad and offered Kaeli a handshake.   
  
"Welcome to the world that doesn't exist Kaeli." The CO of the Hellfire's shook Slayers hand and resumed consuming her beverage. When she finished Kaeli gave Slayer an inquisitive stare.  
  
"Now that we're officially on the same level perhaps you can tell me where you were during the recent battle." Slayer pondered over how he should answer that one. General Alistar had ordered the Wraiths to secrecy about what they had found at Centurion-4 and technically Kaeli wasn't on his level yet. There would be at least an hours worth of tricky paper shuffling before the Hellfires could be considered a black ops unit. Slayer decided that for the moment a creative lie would suffice.  
  
"We were right here in the base providing internal security. Our ships have yet to arrive you know an-"  
  
"Oh come on Slayer do you really expect me to believe that? I know for a fact that if you Wraiths were within fifty klicks of the base you'd be the first ones out ships or not blowing the shit out of everything in sight." Slayer shrank back a little. He obviously could not lie to this woman. She simply knew him and his squadron too well. Best to get her up to speed now before her natural curiosity took over completely.  
  
"Alright since you'll be working with us anyway I guess you need to be brought up to full awareness but not here. I'd rather not let what we've been up to spread around," Slayer motioned towards the door, "lets us find a more secluded place to talk shop." Kaeli nodded her head.  
  
"Fine with me. Follow my lead Slayer I already have a spot picked out for just such a purpose." Kaeli stood up and walked towards the exit red tightly braided pony tail swishing behind her. Slayer downed the remains of his drink and followed after her. Slayer shook his head as he jogged to catch up. She just knew him too damn well.  
  
  
******************************  
End part 3..........  
  
  
The ISDF WANTS  
  
YOU!  
  
Serve your planet and become a member of elite.  
We are in desperate need for members of Hellfire Squadron. If you are interested you can leave a description of how you act and look and what you'd like to be in the story in the reviews or you could e-mail your local recruiter Admiral Kelley (his address is in his author profile)with the required information  
  
**************  
  
Hot damn another installment is finished! So now you know who the enemy is but what are they capable of and why are they hell bent on slaughtering the good guys? These questions and more will be answered in part4 of BATTLEZONE II: LOST LEGACY by Admiral Kelley.  
  
Hope you all liked this part especially you Kaeli my one and only volunteer. All of you feel free to leave an honest review or creative lie hell you can even e-mail me with suggestions if you want though I know its not likely to happen.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt4

Warning! This fic contains language and material that may not be suitable for younger readers so if you go off and kill a bunch of people you can't blame that impulse on this fic! You've had fair warning.

Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt4- _by Admiral Kelley_

_ _

**Legal crap: Please observe that I don't own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. I also do not own any of the Authors Mya, Kaeli, Draganta, Zap_Rowsdower, ShadowDragon, SilverKnight, RainbowKat, QC, Trent Roman, or The RedBaron. They belong to themselves unless they have sold their souls to the Devil in which case they belong to him.Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to come rip you apart piece by piece in the most painful way possible. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sit back, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost legacy pt4 by Admiral Kelley and you are still encouraged to send me honest reviews or creative lies depending upon the content of your opinion so I can make part five better. **

**Many Thanks: Go out to all of you who have been reading the series and to the Authors who volunteered to defend their planet by signing up for this fic we all salute you. Be a responsible recruit and leave a review. Now lets get this fic movin!**

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# **_"In space, all warriors are cold warriors"-Chang_**

# 

# 

# Core was a decidedly harsh planet to human life. Even when it had simply been the Dark Planet before the Scions terraformed it Core still maintained some of the deadly traits from the past. The air was a toxic combination that would melt your lungs if breathed it for even a second. The lack of a substantial atmosphere made explosive decompression a fact of life and its temperatures were wild and varied. Though researchers from the newly formed Scion/ISDF Science Corps had confirmed the planet was far from finished with its transformation and that in five or six generations Core would be habitable without the use of pressurized installations. But until that time Core was still a hostile place and the addition of the enemy horde bearing down on them didn't help much either.

# "Delta two check your six!"

"I can't evade I need assis-!"

"Watch yourselves enemy Warriors at your-"

"I'm hit! My se- jammed it won-aaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Such were the sounds that rang in Lieutenant Johnathan "Draganta" Nemo's headset as he and his wingman Private Trent "Puck" Roman sped off to assist Delta squad in defending the southern defense array that had been ravaged from the recent assault and was now under fire from some late arrivers.

"Trent take my 9'Oclock." Came the cool crisp voice of Draganta over the ship-to-ship frequency. The pair were piloting Sabres through some particularly tricky canyon terrain and coming upon a ramp like hill that would lead them to Delta squads approximate position in an open field dotted with treez the name given to the weird towers located everywhere on Core it seemed.

"Target destination 28.6 meters. Lets jump this ramp and hit them with an aerial raid for starters." Suggested Puck as he made a few calculations to figure his landing spot.

"Agreed. Form up and lets get it done," commanded Draganta. He then changed to the squadron wide channel, "Commence operations!"

The engines on their Sabres flared to full power accelerating the craft forward. In less time than it took to evaporate someone with a nuke they had reached the ramp and sailed up activating VTOL boosters to shoot them vertical a few more meters. The scene from above was quite gruesome. Four Thunderbolts and one or two Avenger missile fighters were single handedly trying to fend off a slew of Scion units ranging from Warriors to Titans. Well, they could soon even those odds. Puck took aim and loosed four SP-stabber rounds each one hitting a warrior and eradicating it from the battlefield in a brilliant haze of debris and fire. Draganta managed to fire off seven before he hit the ground but only two found their mark. Puck was a better shot than he in a Sabre. 

The enemy now alert to the new presence wasted no time in addressing the threats. Even as Draganta and Puck lined up their next shots five Lancers disengaged from their dogfights with the Thunderbolts and disgorged TAG cannon homing beacons. Draganta abruptly threw his ship in reverse and used his VTOL boosters to clear the field of fire with Trent milliseconds behind him. Unfortunately Puck had not reacted in time and three of the beacons embedded themselves within his hull. Upon hearing the muted thumps Trent turned tail and hauled ass as a firestorm of TAG missiles chased after him homing in on the beacons while he ducked behind treez and hills to try an outmaneuver the rockets. 

Draganta was busy with a trio of Titans and their Warrior escorts and unable to assist. The XO of Hellfire squadron skillfully dodged every shot that came his way sometimes getting the enemy to fire on their own units by mistake. Draganta executed a hard turn to port just in time to dodge a lethal shot from one of the Titans Arc Cannon. He was in the process of turning around to make another pass when his computer screeched at the confirmation for a target lock.A Shadower missile appeared out of nowhere most likely fired from one of the Lancers that wasn't in pursuit of the fleeing Puck. There was an enormous _BANG as the rocket made contact with the forward portion of his Sabre. Fortunately for Draganta the missile had been a dud and only left a large dent but the force of the impact sent him spinning into one of Cores treez, which in turn bounced him off to another tower like a pinball. Draganta managed to gain control of his ship just in time to watch a Warrior no less than five meters away charge its plasma cannon. But today was not Draganta's day to die. The Warrior flew apart as five SP-Stabber rounds connected with its cockpit. _

Sailing out of the sky in the same way Puck and Draganta had when they arrived two more Sabres floated down on their VTOL boosters. Judging by the paint scheme the craft belonged to none other than Sergeant Felicia "Mya" Thevendra Hellfires quartermaster and her current wingman Sergeant Ash "ShadowDragon" Rickover. Mya landed first and immediately went about hunting down the Lancers eradicating them with quick accurate shots. ShadowDragon who possessed seriously distorted common sense started to launch mortar rounds at the Titans hoping to bring at least one of the trio down but only succeeding in calling down a rain of Arc Cannon rounds in her general direction.

"Nice of you to show up. What the hell kept you?" Draganta asked ShadowDragon and Mya as he went to rejoin Puck whose ship now possessed a number of deep craters from the missiles he hadn't been able to evade. Mya not being the one to talk during the heat of battle decided to ignore Draganta as she twisted her craft through insane maneuvers to get into firing position on a crafty Lancer pilot. ShadowDragon, however, with a little more experience under her belt and a lot less sanity was fully capable of holding a conversation while flying for her life against some very agitated Titans.

"Road construction! Better late than never sir!"

"Yeah whatever. Where's-"Draganta started before he was blinded by a flash and the abrupt disappearance of one of the Titans.

"Feel my thermonuclear wrath!" From behind one of the treez an Attila walker bounded into view loosing more Blast cannon beams and vaporizing another one of the Titans. A single name was painted onto the hull declaring it the "Kaiju" Sergeant Amp "Wrath~of~Gojira" Paladin's favorite walker.A second walker appeared shortly thereafter surprising a small group of Warriors that had vectored to engage WoG as he continued his rampage and ripped them to shreds with a cold fusion laser.One Lancer managed to sneak by. The walker swiveled its head to line up for the shot and disgorged twin beams of white death dead center on the Lancers engines igniting the fuels pods and providing quite a light show. The pilot had only one thing to say.

"Zap!" there was no mistaking who the pilot of THAT particular ship was. Private Tristan "Zap Rowsdower" Canfield joined WoG on his frolic through the enemy rich environment. Strangely the remaining Titan was nowhere to be seen.

"Here Titan, Titan, Titan!" clucked WoG on open unencrypted channels. Beside him Zap_Rowsdower scanned the terrain adding in his own taunts taking pot shots at any Warriors or Lancers who ventured too close.

"Come out come out wherever you are!" Then Zap saw it. The bulbous comical shaped snout of a Titan turret peeking out from behind a tower.......aimed right for WoG. There was no time to react. The Titan charged its Arc Cannon and fired a deadly beam of lighting. The bolt slammed into WoG leg dead center ripping off a good chunk of the armor. The force of the blow shoved WoG around into his pilot couch prompting him to utter a few curses.

"Damnit you scratched the paint!" Shouted WoG over the radio anger very clear in his voice.Four simultaneous blasts connected with the hull of the Titan as WoG and Zap_Rowsdower took aim and erased the offending unit from existence.With the Titans now gone the remaining units had lost their big guns. One by one Hellfire squadron and the survivors of Delta squad chased down the Warriors and Lancers pushing them back at least half a klick. Draganta made a quick check of his sensors to ensure there were no enemies behind him and made a call.

"Zap the coast is clear. Tell our birds to land! Mya is now your wing!" The Attila walker to Dragantas' immediate left slowed its pace. 

"Copy Draganta Mya is taking Zaps 12'Oclock." The Sabre to Zap's immediate left pulled up in front of the walker stopping at the same time. Zap_Rowsdower did an about face and angled the Attilas head so it pointed just above the horizon for a line of sight transmission to a satellite there.

"Seagulls one and two Hellfire reports area is secure I repeat area is secure drop your cargo." The usual few second of static and then the reply.

"Copy that Hellfire Seagulls one and two are off loading. Good luck down there." Mya's gaze immediately drifted away from her sensor board and to the sky above. Two blobs could be seen through the cloud cover making a rapid descent. The two transports clearly came into view less than a second later angling up after their speed dive and screeched above her position barely twenty meters off the ground. They went on for about another hundred meters or so before they angled their engines for a rapid drop onto the ground the aft of the ships facing Zap's walker. The huge door on the cargo bay swung open and stayed that way for a full minute the bulk of the dropships preventing anyone from seeing the activity on the other side. The dropships engines flared again and the huge ships shot straight up before vectoring away from the combat zone. Left behind on the ground were two humanoid shaped mechs known as Constructors and a large treaded vehicle that was the undeployed Recycler.

Mya just sat there for a moment watching the vehicles as they went about their work. No matter how many times she witnessed it she still could not believe it really happened. The Recycler moved about on its treads until it found a nice flat spot and then disappeared in a haze of blue light as it deployed. The two Constructors went about building things of their own with one constructing power plants and the other setting up relay bunkers and gun towers for defense spiting out blue laser beams of light which she knew to be bio-metal particles into a skeletal pattern. Then the structures just appeared their mass growing like bacteria. The whole process took less than a minute and when it was finished there was now a full workable base. Upon getting conformation from the Constructors Mya activated her quickflash transmitter.

"Mya to Hellfire the Seagulls eggs have hatched. Request permission to move behind the defense line." Off in the distance Mya could barely make out the forms of the assault craft as they maneuvered wildly. According to her radar a new batch of enemies had appeared wiping out what was left of Delta squad and giving the Hellfires who were carrying out the offensive a run for their money. Draganta wasn't long in replying.

"Hellfires move it to that defense line!" all of ships started to move backwards as fast as they could laying down suppressive fire to check the progress of the newly advancing units. Zap_Rowsdower in his Attila and Mya in her Sabre both continued to face the direction of their comrades while slowly backing up towards the gun towers. It didn't take long before Zap could finally see the opposition and at observing it his blood chilled just a little bit. An armada of Warriors was holding their distance in front of the retreating Hellfires taking the occasional pot shot but rarely hitting anything. But these were not what worried Zap it was the squadron of Maulers behind the Warriors that gave him pause. Maulers were possibly the only unit in the Scion army inventory that would give an Attila pilot pause. Quick and well armed they were a nightmare both to fight and look at. 

"Uhhh Boss…" 

"I see them Zap. Hellfires lets hot foot it outa here!" All of Hellfire squadron Mya and Zap included turned tail and bolted as fast as their ships would allow to the base. One by one each Sabre shot past the four gun towers and then took up position behind them for cover and setting up their HUD's to receive sensor data from the defensive structures. WoG and Zap however had other ideas and parked their two legged war machines in front of a gun tower.

"Bring it on!" declared WoG as he turned to face the onslaught of enemy units. Not very far off the Warriors all began to morph their hulls turning the color of sliver and their form shifting until it finally settled into a bigger badder and thankfully much slower unit. Behind them the much faster Maulers jumped over the assault mode Warriors and continued their mad dash eager for blood.As the Maulers entered range of the gun towers they were peppered with hot plasma that melted through their advanced armor like a hot knife through butter shearing off the legs of the Maulers whose pilots were not skilled enough to dodge the incoming fire. But the pilots with skill dodged with the ease of veterans easily outsmarting the automated towers.The Mauler advanced through the mist of green death like it wasn't even there closing the distance to where Hellfire squadron was bellied up. They would soon regret it.

From out of the sky mortar rounds launched from the Sabres blanked out what little sky was visible with their smoke trails. One round hit a Mauler directly in the cockpit killing the pilot and sending the ship head long into the ground. Another round blew a crater in the surface that tripped the Mauler who attempted to jump over its wingman turned scrap pile. Despite heavy mortar fire the Maulers continued to advance, now it was the Attila's turn.

"On three Zap!" commanded WoG as he charged his Blast cannon. From out of the smoke and dust kicked up by the gun towers and mortars the nightmarish forms of the charging Maulers sprang forth immediately coming into range.

"Three!" Four blazing white trails leapt from the combined Attila Blast cannons all hitting their mark all vaporizing a Mauler. When the Cannons entered their short charge cycle Zap and WoG opened up with the cold fusion lasers aiming for the legs and sawing them off. The limp that resulted from some this was something the Hellfires could take advantage of. ShadowDragon locked onto one Mauler with a missing driver leg using the sensor data from the gun tower and launched a single mortar round that left a huge pothole to act as a pit trap. Without the other driver leg the Mauler tripped and fell to the ground tripping another Mauler directly behind it. The pilot inside flinched and discharged his FANG cannon into the head of the other Mauler slicing its pilot through the middle and igniting its ammo reserves. The two ships disappeared in a beautiful blaze of color with one of the legs flung out of the fireball to stab into the ground like a javelin next to ShadowDragon's ship. The sergeant smiled to herself and continued to launch mortars having more or less the same effect every time. Death.

In their hasty act to smash through the Hellfires the Maulers had consigned themselves to destruction and now the Warriors entered the fray. In assault mode the ships were much slower and unable to doge the shots from the gun towers. However there were a great deal of them and while the gun towers could deal out a huge amount of punishment they couldn't get them all. But fortunately the Hellfires were there with cannons and mortars ready to meet the ones that made it through. 

Because Warriors were fairly easy game in a Sabre everyone came out of hiding and started a charge spitting out all manor of weapons striking down the Warriors as fast as they could. Draganta took the lead and brought up his targeting computer locking onto the nearest Warrior. Up ahead the Warrior pilots own computer screeched at him because of it and he unleashed his Plasma stream trying to coat the oncoming Sabre in fire. Draganta easily vectored around the Plasma stream and centered his target reticule on the Warrior. Draganta was just about to depress the trigger when suddenly there was a massive jerk and the world around him went black.

"Simulation canceled. Have a nice day!" Came a feminine computer voice in Draganta's helmet headset. Light burst into Draganta's cockpit as the canopy retracted and above he could see a face staring down where on a real Sabre the turret passed over the cockpit.That face belonged to Lieutenant Maxine "SilverKnight" Gallahan Hellfires unofficial intelligence officer.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but I've just gotten something from the Commander." Draganta frowned at that. He hated being interrupted in the middle of a good tactical simulation and only the fact that it was Kaeli kept him in a good mood. Draganta pulled himself out of the simulator and walked over to the computer console. The other pods in the room shuddered with the simulated g-forces as the rest of the Hellfires continued the game without him. Over by the computer another Hellfire who couldn't participate in the game was sleeping soundly. Known mostly by the name RedBaron, Lieutenant Manfred Von Richtofen who prided himself as a piloting ace especially adept at flying the smaller ships like Thunderbolts or Avengers. The RedBaron was taking the opportunity to catch up on some of the sleep he had lost when Hellfire squadron was transferred in a real hurry to this rock or, if the reports weren't outright lies, hunk of bio-metal. 

Add that to the recent attack and all of the Hellfires looked like they had lost a few years. But that would change with sleep. Draganta wheeled The RedBaron out of the way and sat down in another chair to read the screen. After passing through the usual passwords and identity checks a text message was displayed. It read simply:

____________________________

TO: Lieutenant Johnathan Nemo

FROM: Commander Sahra O'Harra

First off Draganta sorry for interrupting your game (you wonder how I know this? I'm the Commander I know **everything :) second I just found Slayer. He's filling me in on some of the details but that doesn't concern you right now. Get your collective asses out of that TACSIM and go get acquainted with your new roommates in Barracks 34-A. Slayer and I will join you shortly. **

Peace out! 

MESSEGE ENDS

____________________________

# Draganta smiled a bit a moved his left hand to the delete key but stopped when it started to twitch uncontrollably. Annoyed he swatted it against the screen and it stopped. "Stupid bionics," he muttered to himself as he pressed the delete command. He would have to see Dr. Emrid about this it would not do for him to be twitchy in a profession where every shot counts. Behind him the simulation stopped and the simulator hatches popped open and the Hellfires all climbed out. The RedBaron awoke from his slumber as if on some predetermined signal and grabbed a data pad before walking over with SilverKnight.

"Finally…." They both breathed. SilverKnight and especially The RedBaron hated analysis duty during these simulations. 

"How did we fair?" Asked Puck as he jumped out of the cockpit.

"Yeah spill it. Did we beat Blue squads record or what?" inquired WoG.The RedBaron consulted his data pad for a moment and then looked up.

"An efficiency rating of 89.99% my friends we have beaten their score by a margin of at least 5%." he said with his usual heavy German accent.

"Guys we just won a shit load of supplies!" laughed ShadowDragon as she recalled the bet made to them by Blue squads cocky pilots. Served them right thinking they were the best just because Major Manson was leading them. Mya stood beside her dreaming of the supplies she could finally get without having to steal. Then her attention wandered back to Draganta who was standing by the computer console as if waiting for…

"Hey Draganta why did you leave in the middle of the SIM? We could've bumped up out rating a little bit with you there." Asked Mya. Draganta sighed and walked over to the group.

"I would love to have stayed but I'm afraid Kaeli had other ideas." SilverKnight turned her head and cocked an eyebrow at that.

'Well don't hold us all in suspense what hell does the good commander want?" she asked a little sarcastically.

"Yes what's so important that it couldn't wait until the TACSIM was finished?" Puck crossed his arms waiting for the reply.

"The Wraiths have finally arrived. Kaeli wants us to go off and get reacquainted with out new roommates. Anybody got a map?" WoG dug around in his suit pockets and pulled out a data pad, which he tossed to Draganta. The XO studied it for a second, "Okay Barracks 34-A is one level down and two corridors across from where we are now." The Hellfires all moved out of the room to meet up with the Wraiths. For some like Privates Trent Roman and Zap it would be for the first time but for the others it would be like visiting family…

*******************

The room Kaeli had picked out in fact turned out to be an empty mini-armory. Not the roomiest of secret briefing spaces to be sure but it would work nonetheless. Slayer recounted to Kaeli of Wraith squadrons recent activities and when he finished he looked up to his fellow commander to see a glint of humor in her eyes.

"That's funny Slayer but now come on what's the real reason you guys weren't out there shooting the shit with us?" Slayer just shook his head.

"Its some story yes but every word I've spoken is what happened." Kaeli just smiled.

"C'mon Slayer you've got to be shitting me. The Furies were driven away a long time ago hell if I remember correctly it was General Alistar himself who pushed the assholes out when he was a littl'ol commander like us." 

"Yes I know. The old mans told me that story dozens of times over a pint but that's beside the point. All I'm telling you is what we saw and what we saw was some spooky shit. Add that to the fact that we had a fuckin field army chasing us on the way out and it leads me to the conclusion that this information is relatively true." Kaeli just shook her head in disbelief.

"You guys have seen and done things that nobody else has seen or done right?" Slayer nodded, "Then have you ever…"

"Gone head to head with the Furies? No all I know about them is what was said in the military history classes and of course from Alistar's stories when I can get enough liquor into him."

"How bad were they?" asked Kaeli. Slayer grimaced as he recalled those sessions with Alistar.

"Bad enough to give Alistar nightmares and he was on the front lines when the Soviet CCA was bad news." Kaeli remembered quite vividly a film showed during a class from her long ago basic training that contained among all things a short film designed for NSDF recruits. In it was some violent footage of an interrogation session with an NSDF commander and his Soviet guards. Well not so much and interrogation, the guards were just bored and needed somebody to disembowel to pass the time. Yeah the CCA was pretty scary back then but if what Slayer had been telling her was true than compared to the Furies the CCA was a fuckin walk in a Disney World park.

"Is there anything you know about that I cant get from the history database." Slayer smiled at Kaeli's question letting her know in advance that he knew something she didn't. Kaeli hated that.

"Oh sure for starters the Furies are not human/bio-metal hybrids like the Scions. They were pure Bio-metal. The Soviets just awakened the supposed consciousness that exists inside bio-metal and introduced it to communism. What they had after that was a perfect communist warrior. They were ships with minds of their own capable of mass destruction. When they saw how corrupt their leaders were they defected because they believed themselves to be true communists attacking both the NSDF and the CCA. That's when General Braddock's little experimental Black Dog squadron went AWOL and tried to run but got caught in the cross fire," Upon hearing the name Braddock Kaeli eyes narrowed and she acquired the look of a vengeful god from the times of old.

"Don't ever mention that bastards name in my presence Slayer!" Kaeli practically spat. "That son of a bitch left me and my squadron to die on that God forsaken rock Bane. I lost some good people from that little escapade. If you guys hadn't fished us outa there there'd be nothing left of us but Goddamn craters!" 

"Yes well anyway it was then that General B- I mean he who is to remain unmentioned in your presence tried to kill two birds with one stone and wipe out both the Black Dogs and the Furies by having the NSDF and CCA join forces to create the ISDF but by the time he had gotten his act together the Black Dogs had already escaped by means of the Dark Planet wormhole that we didn't know about until recently and all that was left were the Furies and they weren't going without a fight. Hell the only reason they were defeated is cause Alistar blew up the planet where their base of operations was located. After that they sorta just disappeared." Kaeli loosed a grim smile.

"Never to be seen again?" mused Kaeli. Slayer scoffed.

"Not if our information is even halfway true. Hell I hope somebody's playing a trick on us. Those horror stories Alistar tells don't exactly encourage you to go head to head with them. Anyhow you know the story from there. The Black Dogs went off and became the Scions then they returned so they could make themselves a new home world out of the Dark Planet but General he whose name is not to be mentioned in your presence screwed things up and started a war." Kaeli gave an unhumorus laugh.

"Now theres the understatement of the century. Oh well what's the plan for our upcoming operations?" Slayer opened his mouth to reply but suddenly one of the lockers burst open spilling out none other than General Alistar himself onto the floor in a fit of curses causing Kaeli to jump practically ten feet in the air. Slayer who had grown accustomed to surprise comings and goings lately wasn't as startled but the last person he had expected to see bursting out of an abandoned weapons locker was General Alistar. The old British man pulled himself up while dusting off his dress uniform. _Never know where the old mans going to pop up, thought Slayer_

"I'm getting a bit too old for this." Kaeli was still in mute shock leaving Slayer to handle the general.

"James what the hell are you doing here? You trying to play hide and seek with the Padisha?" Alistar smiled and offered them both a handshake. Over to Slayers side Kaeli was at rigid attention seeing as how this mans reputation for chewing out was long and well known.

"At ease commanders," Kaeli resumed a comfortable stance.,"I've got some good news and some bad news for you Tim and.....Sahra isn't it?" Kaeli gave a stiff nod. Alistar returned it with a frown. "No need to worry commander I don't bite. You're not some slack ass leftenant you're the commander of my newest Black-Ops squadron so I shouldn't have to chew you out unless you screw up big time. Do you intend to screw up big time?" Kaeli released a small grin and a chuckle.

"No General!" Alistar's frown grew deeper and his voice dropped a degree or two as he spoke.

"What was that......" Kaeli stammered for a moment as she though up a correct response.

"No.....James?" Alistar cracked a smile.

"Better. I prefer to be on a first name basis with my elite personnel. Now back to business. Tim your ships and the rest of your equipment has just arrived and are awaiting you to make use of it." Slayer felt a moment of relief wash over him before his mind started to grasp on the situation.

"Umm James why are you letting me know personally. Couldn't the alert have been sent through normal lines?" Alistar lost his smile and leaned in close to the two commanders his voice in hush conspiratorial tones.

"That my boy is the bad news. It seems the AAN has caught wind of the recent attack and are sending their war inspectors to oversee our operations." Slayer groaned.

"Oh shit!" Kaeli gave him a quizzical stare.

"Why is that bad news isn't the AAN on our side?" Alistar had a good laugh at that one.

"They are if you're conventional forces. The AAN doesn't like the idea of a Black ops unit and they've been trying to wipe out the Wraiths for some time. You know not allowing them access to the proper equipment and generally hassling us people in the world that doesn't exist." Kaeli was now a bit confused. She knew Slayer and the AAN weren't exactly on good terms but.......

"Why would they do that?Haven't Black Ops units proven time and again to be valuable assets?" It was all Kaeli could ask and Slayer had the answer.

"Because were black Kaeli. We're blacker than black we take the rules they try to dictate to us and shove them right back up their own asses so we can keep mankind alive. Those _politicians don't know the first thing about war or what we need to fight one. What they think of as a proper military is one that looks good on a recruitment poster, people with high morals who are honorable to the enemy. We do things Kaeli that to them are not honorable. The AAN only knows of about 2% of our operations and they dislike us. Were they to know everything we did during the Scion war they would probobly try to have us shot on the spot. And if they learn that theres a new black ops squadron in town then..." Alistar chose that moment to cut in._

"They would raise pure bloody hell about it and I would be stuck in paper work for years. Now the AAN intelligence people aren't half-bad and are now watching the ISDF so they can report any secrets we may be trying to hide. Seeing as how Cloud-9 is the center of activity for Core right now they'll be watching us the closest. I need to quietly move your squadrons to a location where you won't be hassled and can carry out your operations in secrecy from the AAN," Alistar handed Kaeli and Slayer each a hardcopy map, "Here's a map and a list of instructions for your departure do not deviate in the slightest from them. In the coming days do not try to contact me unless I call for you," Alistar turned to leave but turned around, "Oh Sahra by any chance have you met the Padisha Burns?"

"Greeting commander," a voice called out from right next to Kaeli's ear. On instinct Kaeli reached to grab whomever it was behind her and toss them. She succeeded in getting the Padisha in a headlock but Burns was a heavy Scion and her human strength wasn't up to it. Slayer sighed and got Kaeli to release her headlock.

"Well come on Burns let's go." Alistar opened the hatch to the room and the still cloaked Padisha could be heard running out. When the hatched had closed behind Alistar Kaeli looked over to Slayer who now wore a broad grin. Kaeli gave him a look that seemed to ask _What the hell have I gotten myself into?Slayer slung his arm around her shoulder and led her off to the barracks chuckling._

"Welcome to my world Kaeli." 

*******************

Everyone had been asleep when they came. The doors were practically kicked in and rushing bodies flowed to fill in the room. The Wraiths were jerked out of their peaceful slumber only to be greeted by an all too familiar sight.Hugs and handshakes were exchanged as the Wraiths and Hellfires met again.The only people who couldn't participate in the flowing of old memories were Zap and Puck who had no old memories to share.Zap was a recent addition to Hellfire squadron as was Trent and all they knew of the Wraiths was what their squadmates occasionally talked about but that didn't mean they couldn't get to know them little better. Zap walked next to his usual wingman WoG over to a large black man and an Irish looking fellow about a head shorter than the former. When WoG and Zap got there were handshakes all around.

"Its good to see you again Paddy, Pyro." 

"Aye that it is. Whose your friend there."

"Private Tristan Canfield" The big black man whom Zap had guessed was Pyro tilted his head and frowned.

"…your real name." That was another odd quirk about the ISDF. Soldiers and pilots referred to their call signs as their real names except in the presence of a high-ranking officer.

"The names Rowsdower, Zap_Rowsdower.My wingman Wrath~of~Gojira here tells me that you're the craziest son if a bitch to ever wield a satchel charge." Pyro looked from WoG and back to Zap before laughing again his deep voice shaking Zap slightly. Zap still couldn't believe how big Pyro was. His own 6'3 San Diego body was just tall enough to look him straight in the neck and that Paddy person had the look of a dirty rotten scoundrel about him. He was going to have an interesting time working with these two. Zap spared a look over to his right where he could see his fellow Private, Puck, engaged in a conversation with The RedBaron and another German looking fellow.

"Your German is excellent Trent." Commented Steel.

"Danke." Trent had started off nicely managing to guess the mans primary language fairly quick. The man before him was supposedly a genius with electronics or so his wingman The RedBaron had informed him. Puck being an avid techie himself and always on the look out for new technological magic tricks was eager to learn what the black world had to offer. "Have you seen the new Dx-22 encryption system?" Puck had decided to start out with shoptalk. The Dx-22 was the latest in ISDF encryption technology using a spin on quantum physics to create a random set of signals each time and therefore theoretically the code was unbreakable. Steel mulled over the question for a moment his mind seeming to be somewhere else at the moment.

"Hmmm? Ja I have seen the Dx-22 and it is a real piece of fine work. It took me nearly a week to figure out how to crack it." Puck tried hard to hide his surprise not succeeding in the least. Steel halfway grinned as he noticed Puck's expression. "How did I do it you ask? It really is a simple matter I nearly shot myself out of disgust when I realized how easy it was. RedBaron if you would be so kind as to hand me a notepad?" The RedBaron reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a notepad tossing it to Steel who motioned Puck in closer so he could show him how he did it. This was going to be an educational experience he would not want to forget. Not much farther off Puck could see Mya and her wingm- wingwoman actually ShadowDragon talking to the Irish man Paddy who had moved away from his conversation with Zap and WoG.

"You seem a might low on supplies there lass. Not much here I can trade you for." Proclaimed Paddy as he examined the manifest of Hellfires squadron's current supplies. Mya nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes but a recent......situation has given us quite a good windfall on supplies. Give me another day or two and I'll have a nice plump manifest full of all sorts of goodies we can squabble over." Paddy chuckled as a thought entered his mind.

"By "situation" you mean a bet don't you. So who were the arrogant bastards this time?" 

"Blue squad. The damn fools wagered half their supply manifest plus a whole months worth of pay over the Seagull scenario simulation and because they're Blue squad you know we've hit the jackpot where supplies are concerned."

"Enjoy it while you can lass. Now that the AAN is moving into the ISDF ever since Braddock's little escapade life will be hard for the jolly folk like us." Mya was well aware of what Paddy was telling her. The AAN had been advancing steadily closer to ISDF responsibilities moving to gain control of the organization. Though it was extremely unlikely that an event like that would occur the AAN had already taken over supply distribution and now it was exceedingly difficult to requisition gear due to the added paperwork. ShadowDragon who had been hanging off to the side of the conversation decided to change the subject since it seemed to depress the two quartermasters.

"Sooo Paddy, is it true that you and Pyro once massacred a whole bar of Marines while half drunk?" Paddy and Mya both recognized the attempt to change the subject and decided to go with it. They need the distraction from worrying about the AAN.

"Actually lass it seemed more like the same Marine over and over again. Liquor does that too you. Anywho yeah we did and only because they were slightly more stoned then we were at the time. Slayer damn near laughed his head off when he came to get us away from the MP's."

"But you two really did kick the ass of every single Marine in that bar?"

"Yes but we paid for it the next morning. Forgot to take our sober pills before we passed out and woke up with a bloody headache compliments of hell." ShadowDragon actually laughed happy to have found another person who was at least half as crazy as she was. Movement appeared on ShadowDragon's peripheral vision and she glanced over to see SilverKnight and Draganta conversing with and woman of Asian descent towards the corner of the room.

"Not that I'm complaining but when the hell did this get finalized?" Phoenix was glad to see the reappearance of some of her old friends but this partnership of their two squadrons was very short noticed. The way Alistar had explained it at the briefing made it seem like weeks would pass before he gave them support.

"We're just as surprised as you are." Draganta took the pad he had given to Phoenix back.

"Still it just seems like another one of Slayers practical jokes." Phoenix glanced back to the other pilots talking. Phoenix gestured in their general direction, "Do they know anything about this?" SilverKnight shook her head.

"No all we told them was that we're going to bunking with you guys for space reasons. I wanted to confirm this report before we went off making proclamations and such. It sounds just like some sort of joke our commanders would play on us." Their conversation was cut short as the hatch sprang open on the other side of the barracks room but strangely nobody entered into the room. Every pair of eyes in the room was now focused on the phantom hatch so it came as a great surprise when two voices bellowed from the opposite side of the room where there was no door. 

"Wraiths!" Went one.

"Hellfires!" Sounded another.

"ATTENTION!" said the two voices in union.All the pilots instinctively snapped to attention and did an about face to the source of that sound. In front of them stood Commanders Kaeli and Slayer with their hands clasped behind their backs. Phoenix reminded herself to ask Slayer how he managed that little trick. Kaeli stepped forward.

"We have just received new operational orders. From here on in Hellfire squadron is now a Black Ops unit working in conjunction with the Wraiths. That means your unit patches come off and you are not to frequent this bases fine drinking establishments or travel anywhere outside without my say so." Slayer stepped forward.

"That goes for you too Wraiths. General Alistar has handed me our new orders. We'll be moving out soon so get some rest. I would advise Hellfire to do the same."

"Agreed," said Kaeli, "I want at least six hours of ZZZZ's drilled into your asses. That is all." Kaeli threw a salute,"Hellfires!" Slayer threw a salute himself.

"Wraiths!"

"Dismissed!" They both shouted in unison. Kaeli made a bee line for the commanders office while Slayer quietly pulled the XO of each squadron into the commanders office with Kaeli and himself. Once the door was closed Draganta and Phoenix lost their serious look and laughed.

"That was quite a show there CO!" Phoenix congratulated Slayer with a handshake. Draganta did much the same to Kaeli.

"But seriously you two suck when you try to be serious." Chimed Draganta. Being the XO's of a squadron meant they could be a little more direct in their opinions. 

"It wasn't all a shitact," commented Kaeli handing each of the XO's a hardcopy of their orders, "take a look at the disappearing trick we're going to pull." Draganta stopped his smiling when he was halfway through it. Phoenix's grin just grew even wider.

"_JesuChristo!" exclaimed Draganta, "Kaeli is this shit for real?" When Kaeli and Slayer nodded a yes Phoenix leaned back in her chair._

"Bout goddamn time too. Anything else bosses?" Slayer and Kaeli both said no and dismissed them. Before Phoenix could make it out of the room to retire to her bunk, however, Slayer's helmet commlink beep. Annoyed Slayer plopped the helmet on his head and appeared to have a conversation. Phoenix hung around at the door in morbid curiosity. When Slayer was finished he took off his helmet and sighed.

"Who was that?" inquired Kaeli.

"Dr. Emrid," Slayer grimaced, "It seems Angel finally woke up and is raising hell in the Med. bay. The good doctor respectfully requests that we reclaim her." Kaeli snorted.

"Nice way of saying get her the fuck outa here." Phoenix checked the bunks for a second.

"I'll send Steel to go pick her up," Phoenix was about to leave the room when Kaeli raised a halting finger. 

"...could you also tell Steel to escort one of our people out of the Med. bay?"

"Who exactly?" Phoenix's mind raced as she tried to remember who was not in attendance. Of course! How could she have forgotten about...

"RainbowKat, just tell'm to holler her name and she'll come a runnin." Phoenix saluted and left the two commanders alone in the room. Kaeli stared at the wall for a moment then tilted her head.

"You know Slayer I just realized that there's only one commanders bunk and that I sure as hell ain't sleeping on the floor." Slayer grimaced and turned to face Kaeli ready to engage in whatever strange form of competition she would propose to see who got the bunk and who got the floor mattress. It was going to be a looong night for Slayer..........

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END PART4

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**Authors note: It.....is......finished. I apologize for taking so long to get this part out but its been quite a busy month around my base and I have been somewhat detained and besides this seems like a nice place to cut you off. QC, fear not I haven't forgotten about you. You'll be showing up in the next part guaranteed along with RainbowKat if she'll answer me directly with the information I require instead of sending one of her clones to give me a guessed report on her looks, names, and everything else I need.Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'll see you all again in pt5. **

Admiral Kelley out!


	5. Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt5

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Warning! This fic contains language and material that may not be suitable for younger readers so if you go off and kill a bunch of people you can't blame that impulse on this fic! You've had fair warning.

Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt5- _by Admiral Kelley_

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**Legal crap:** Please observe that I don't own anything that originated from the Activision game Battlezone II and anything else is completely mine and is subject to my own unique brand of copyright law. I also do not own any of the Authors Mya, Kaeli, Draganta, Zap_Rowsdower, ShadowDragon, SilverKnight, RainbowKat, QC, Trent Roman, or The RedBaron. They belong to themselves unless they have sold their souls to the Devil in which case they belong to him.Those who try to rip off my story or steal any of my ideas without at least mentioning where you got them in your story monologue will result in me sending a crack team of highly paid lawyers addicted to human flesh to bore you to death and then kill all your relatives with red tape when they try to have you buried. Now with the legal crap out of the way I encourage you to sit back, relax, and enjoy reading Battlezone II: Lost Legacy pt5 by Admiral Kelley and you are still encouraged to send me honest reviews or creative lies depending upon the content of your opinion so I can make part six better.

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# _"All warfare is based on deception." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War_

Life is an imperfect existence. Things happen that defy the very laws of nature and physics, which all must abide by, and when those laws were broken somebody has to pay. It was one of the Supreme Mandates of the Fury Hegemony and right now its latest victim, Field Master Dimity, was feeling the after effects of one such violation. 

His steps down the corridor were slow and painful. The healers had deemed his condition unworthy of medical painkillers and had instructed him to simply return to his quarters and rest. As a result he was very dizzy from the reattachment process and needed to use the walls for support. He was not alone in the corridor of course, soldiers and technicals breezed past him none letting their eyes linger upon the Field Master's form. It was considered an offense worthy of execution to stare at your superior in a weakened condition while off the battlefield. But even though none gazed at him Dimity could hear their thoughts. 

_Failure, idiot, incompetent, imbecile! _He didn't have to be telepathic to know what they were thinking. He had failed his superiors, failed his people and yet he was allowed to live. Though, on the surface Dimity understood why deep down he could not comprehend. 

_Failure means termination_ he remembered being taught so long ago. _It is the law of the Furies_ and yet he still lived. Did that mean he wasn't a Fury and if so then what was he? The corridor beyond seemed to extend into eternity as Dimity took long labored steps to reach his goal his mind now beginning to ache along with his limbs. _Failure means termination _the words spoken by his superiors rang through his mind again but this time they elicited a feint amount of……anger. Dimity was so stunned at his reaction that he stopped in the halls and surprised a few soldiers who'd been following too close. 

_Failure means termination_ he thought again and just as before there was that flash of anger, but it felt stronger this time…..and somehow familiar. With confusion running rampant through his thoughts Dimity continued on again hugging the walls so as not to fall over and humiliate himself further. A few long minutes later he reached the door to his private quarters and pushed his way in not even bothering to continue on to his cot and opting to instead collapse to the hard floor and lay there without the energy to lift a single tendril.

_Failure means termination_ the familiar anger bubbled up again _Fuck you!_ Dimity jerked his head up at the unexpected response he had just given almost as if on instinct and yet he couldn't remember ever doing that before…..or could he. A pictured formed in his mind…..a darkened room full of strange machinery. Dimity felt almost as if he was actually there. He could smell rotting flesh and hear pained murmurs, and when he looked to his hands…_these are not my hands!_ In that room Dimity could see a mirror and staring back at him from the mirror was a bizarre but recognizable figure that wasn't him but at the same time was. _Who am I?_ Dimity wailed in his thoughts as darkness enveloped the dream and he was sent into a nonsensical slumber….

***********************

Dreams were nice things to have. Oh sure, occasionally they could develop into nightmares and ruin an otherwise perfect night's sleep but the chances of that were slim if you went to bed with a minimal amount of stress on your shoulders. But as another one of the ISDF's comically cruel rules of thumb point out "You're a squadron Commander and you'll do your dreaming AFTER the war's over!" Even though an official war had never been declared it didn't seem to stop that rule from being put into effect.

It started off as an insistent beeping to his right gradually becoming louder and louder until it turned into an ear-piercing shriek. When it reached the top of it's acoustic arc Slayer finally moved his arm over to the space next to him and felt around until his hand bumped into his helmet. Without opening his eyes Slayer picked up the still screeching headgear and stuck it on to turn the alert feature of his helmet communicator off. With a tap to the base of the antenna Slayer signaled whoever it was on the other end that he was receiving.

"Commander wake up!" Slayer eyes snapped open at the outburst and he found himself staring face to face with General Alistar. Slayer was already sitting up before he realized his helmet HUD was only giving him a picture reference as to who was calling. 

"Sir!" he reported back. 

"I have a situation here that requires your immediate attention, wake up Commander O'Hara and have her escort you to my office. There are several things I need to discuss with the both of you, be here in five minutes or heads will roll. Now get moving!"

"Sir yes sir!" Slayer reported for flair. Alistar never spoke to Black Op's personnel in that manner and his sudden formality could mean than he was under observation. Alistar's picture disappeared from the screen and Slayer was left with the usual HUD layout. At the bottom right corner Slayer saw the timer and realized that he'd only been asleep for about five minutes. _The start of another beautiful day_ Slayer thought to himself as he got up off the mat and moved over to the cot next to him to rouse Kaeli.

"Now, now Slayer I won fair and square, you sleep on the floor." Kaeli observed when Slayer shook her awake.

"It's not that, get up and moving. I just got a call from Alistar, he wants us in his office." Kaeli regarded him for a moment before sighing and swinging her legs onto the floor.

"Trouble?" she asked.

"Possibly, he seemed overly formal when he called. Might mean he knows or suspects he's being watched." Kaeli stretched to warm up her muscles and nodded.

"Well then we'd better not keep the general waiting, let the XO's know?"

"Damn straight," Slayer agreed, "I want someone to know where we're supposed to be in the event that we disappear."

"Disappear?" Kaeli inquired.

"Old Black Op's legend, I'll tell you when we have time, come on!" Fortunately for the both of them they were decked out in battle suits and didn't have to waste precious seconds dressing. After taking exactly one minute to sneak into the XO's quarters, and finding Draganta on the ground just as Slayer had predicted, they woke Phoenix and Draganta up to explain the situation. The XO's repeated what they had been told and silently cursed their commanders because now they would be unable to get any more sleep.

Kaeli and Slayer then slinked out of the barracks and made their way through the base to Alistar's office, one of the few places they didn't need a map to find. The large set of double doors just down the hall from the Op's Center opened up into a secretaries office where one woman and one man sat at a desk pretending to do secretarial things. But both Kaeli and Slayer knew better and saw the weapon's shaped bulges in the dress uniform jackets the both of them wore. 

"We're here to see the general." Slayer announced the first part of the spoken code.

"He's had an unsuccessful campaign, hope you aren't bringing him bad news." The female bodyguard in disguise responded. _Uh oh _Slayer though instantly. If he was reading the code right then that response meant Alistar was in some sort of distress over something, and it took a lot to distress General James Alistar.

"We'll try not to make his day worse," Slayer completed the code ritual and motioned for Kaeli to follow as the male body guard pushed a button under the desk that led to a small room and Alistar's office beyond. While in the room they were scanned for weapons or assassination devices, the machinery providing a dull thrum that would prevent outsiders from listening in through bugs in the room..

"What the hell was that all about?" Kaeli asked as soon as she knew it was safe to talk.

"Something's going on here that's got Alistar spooked and it isn't just the Furies anymore." 

"Well wh-" She started before Slayer made a slashing motion across his throat as the doors opposite the ones they had entered opened and the blanket of noise died off. The two commanders stepped through to be greeted by the sight of a neutral faced Alistar sitting back in his chair.

"You wanted to see us sir?" Slayer asked. Alistar looked like he was about to reply when a wall panel slid up from behind and a person stepped into the light.

"Actually I'm the one who wanted to see you," he was a small man with neatly combed brown hair and a pair of the ugliest glasses Kaeli had ever seen. He was dressed in the uniform of an ISDF Captain but somehow Kaeli got the idea that this man had never benefited from military training. Though he kept himself relatively clean he was noticeably overweight and looked like he spent all of his time either in bed or in an office.

"Captain Rudy," Slayer smiled one of those smiles Kaeli knew to be faked and instantly the pieces flew together, _AAN War Inspector!_ "What brings you way out here?" Slayer offered"Rudy" his hand but the small round man declined it by glancing at a clipboard he held in his arms.

"The well being for the people of Earth commander," He cast a carefully hidden flash of anger towards Slayer, "not that you'd know anything about that."

"Why whatever do you mean?" Slayer asked with a trace of sarcasm in his voice while he pretended to be hurt. 

"Funny," Rudy replied, "I'm sure your deniability will serve your squadron well at the court marshal!" 

"Begging the captains pardon sir, but I don't believe my squadron has done anything worthy of a court marshal." Slayer observed dryly. Somehow, Kaeli got the impression that he had been through this before.

"We'll see about that!" Rudy declared, "I have a sudden urge to do a surprise inspection, and guess who my target is?"

"Surely sir you would prefer to wait until my squadron has had a chance to unpack and organize everything to save you a headache." Kaeli could see Slayer stiffen slightly at the mention of an inspection.

"You mean give you a chance to hide all that illegal equipment you keep? I think not!" Rudy tuned to Alistar, "General if you would be so kind as to show us the way out."

"Of course," the general replied pushing a button under his desk and opening another wall panel. Alistar got up and motioned for the others to follow him, and when the general had disappeared into the opening Rudy walked right up to Slayer and sneered.

"I'm bringing you and the rest of your scumassed squadron down!" Then he turned to Kaeli and pointed an accusing finger at her, "and support squadron my ass! I know what that old bastards trying to pull and were I you I'd jump ship before I have to bring you down with him!" With that Rudy stormed out following Alistar through the wall leaving Kaeli and Slayer alone. 

Kaeli balled her fists in anger and looked over to Slayer to ask him why the hell he had just sat through that without defending himself. The she noticed his smile and looked down to his suits utility belt to see Slayer pushing a small red button. When he noticed her stare Slayer put his finger to his lips and wiped the smile off his before going into the wall to go behind Rudy. Kaeli got the gist of what he was saying and made a mental not to play along with whatever he had in mind coming up. On the other side of the base things were not going to be nearly as quiet…….

***********************

While in operation a squadron must be supplied with equipment and food to keep it's ships and personnel running. It was the official job of the supply officer to make sure that both of those things were kept in goodly amounts, but Paddy was far from a normal supply officer. In the past Paddy had come up to Slayer with a procedure to help them get past the rare "official" inspections Black Ops units endure, all the members of Wraith Squadron knew it by heart and had practiced it several times to make sure they would get it done fast and efficiently.Paddy had planned it all out in three different phases and Phase One was for someone in the squadron to get advanced word to his or her fellows and delay the inspectors as much as possible, which Slayer had started when he pushed the button on his belt. The method chosen to alert the rest of the Wraiths was a small amount of electronic white noise that would be sent directly to every Wraiths helmet comm. alerting them to the danger.

The only Wraith at the time of the signal's transmission to have his helmet on happened to be Sergeant Paddy who only opted to wear it so he could have a swig of some homemade brew stored in a vacuum flask. Though he was slightly drunk Paddy had trained himself to fear that noise so as to break through any haze he might be stuck behind. The Irish man's eyes jolted open immediately as he listened to the static like hiss for a second more to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Oh bloody hell," he shucked off his helmet and ran over to the barracks light switch, slapping it hard and spilling glorious white light into the dark barracks. The XO's instantly jumped out of their office/quarters and saw Paddy standing there dead serious and practically ripping the door off of it's hinges, "VAMPIRE!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, "ONE MINUTE!" Pyro, the only other Wraith in the room besides Phoenix, was up and out of his cot and pulling on his battle suit instantaneously. Phoenix, who was already dressed, jogged from across the room with Draganta in tow.

"Confirmed signal?" she asked.

"Better believe it lass!" Paddy reported back as he scrambled over to his cot and reached into his duffel bag, pulling out a handful of multicolored disks and tossing them to Pyro. Then he froze and glanced around the room as his mind suddenly made a remarkable discovery, "Shit, Phoenix we donna have enough people to cover the trail!" Indeed, with Slayer, Steel, and Angel gone they would be unable to hide everything in time.

"Two things," Draganta interrupted,"What the hell is going on and how can we help?" Phoenix regarded him for a second and took him aside giving him an unfulfilling but rapid explanation. Draganta whirled around on one foot and began to point out a few of the Hellfire pilots who had awaked at the sudden commotion and were standing nearby.

"Puck, Mya, ShadowDragon you follow Paddy!" Draganta turned to his right, "Baron, Wrath, Rowsdower, you go with Pyro! SilverKnight you're with Phoenix and me!" 

"What the hell's up XO" WoG called as he fastened the utility belt around his battle suit.

"No time to explain just follow your Wraith and do what they tell you to do!" In conjunction with his words Phoenix, Paddy, and Pyro went blazing out the barracks door with the Hellfires making a desperate attempt to keep up.

Though, unknown to the Hellfires that event marked the second phase of Paddy's Vampire plan, used in instances to avoid court marshal by blood sucking war inspectors.At the first call of the signal the Wraith's plan allowed them one minute to get up and organized and then eleven more to get out and cover up anything that could possibly bring the military investigators down on them. Paddy would be heading for main supply offices to "modify" their supply manifest and through that omit certain crates from their possession that contained questionable items. Pyro would be hauling ass to the vehicle hangar itself to perform a little slapdash cover up job on their ships there, so when they were scanned nothing unusual would show up. Phoenix would make her way into a security station and use the override controls to slow down whoever was making the inspection. 

It was an operation planned to take a total of twelve minutes to complete with six people. Now with only three people who knew what was going on and eight who were being led by their noses it might take considerably longer, but fortunately for all of them there were those who had realized this beforehand and had taken steps to assist…

***********************

Phoenix had been setting a mean pace for Draganta and ShadowDragon to follow, so it came as an unpleasant surprise when she skidded to a halt just short of a T-Junction in the corridor. She pulled a map out of her pocket and gave it a brief glance to confirm what she already knew.

"Alright, the area security station is just around this corner." She said more for the benefit of Draganta and Silverknight then herself, "Just follow my lead and let me do the talking."

"Whatever," SilverKnight agreed as she and Draganta moved forward with Phoenix around the corner. The double doors leading to the local security station were about twenty meters further down guarded by three men one of whom was in an armored shack, in the event of a firefight it would be that one who was responsible to raise the alarm, but it Phoenix gave little thought since she wasn't planning on using violence…yet. The three guards had spotted Phoenix and the Hellfires when they rounded the corner and made a discrete transmission to their commanding officer inside. Phoenix dismissed it as standard procedure and calmly walked up to the guards.

"Excuse me bu-"

"You're here!" The door opened and the man in charge of this station, presumably a major by his rank insignia, walked out and offered Phoenix his hand, "I have to say sir I thought it was a sick joke when they told me you were coming."

"Why uh yes….yes…good to see everything was in order then." Phoenix ad libed, she had no idea why this man was being so friendly but decided that it could work to their advantage."Shall we get on with it then?" She asked experimentally.

"Of course General, this way please," Phoenix tried hard not to gag in surprise, "I'm sure you'll find everything is in order." Draganta, SilverKnight, and Phoenix were led into the security station past the doors.

"Now I hope everything will pass sirs," The major said as he slowly backed up out of the room, "if you run into any problems during your inspection just we'll be outside." He closed the double doors and they were left alone. 

"General?" Both Draganta and SilverKnight asked at once.

"Yeah that was a little strange," Phoenix said as she sat down at one of the computer terminals and began to "hack" into the door control systems, "but we have better things to worry about now. Get onto one of those terminals and start switching around the access codes for everything near…" she glanced back at her map, "Hanger-7."

The process was not as hard as one would of thought, because the security personnel would need quick access to everything in the system and as a result the software was very user friendly. The Linux programmers had gone out of their way for the ISDF when they came to them for an operating system not wanting to trust Microsoft with something so sensitive. In only a handful of minutes all of the current access codes had been rendered completely useless, anybody trying to make their way to Hangar-7 would encounter several roadblocks that would take a minute or two to work around. 

They covered their electronic tracks as well as time allowed and signaled the guards outside that they were finished, "So quickly?" the major wonder aloud, "was everything all right?"

"Quite all right major," Phoenix assured, "keep up the good work and there may be a promotion just around the corner for you."

"Sir yes sir!" Draganta, Phoenix, and SilverKnight left without another word back the direction they had originally come from. When they rounded the corner Phoenix glanced at a wristwatch she had on before taken off again without so much as a warning to Draganta or SilverKnight. Their task had taken them roughly eight minutes to complete, and now Phoenix was moving onto Phase three, run like hell back to the barracks just in case somebody dropped by and found they weren't there. 

But the mistake in rank had Phoenix's mind running faster than her feet. _How could they have thought I was a general when I was dressed in lieutenant's décor?_ The only logical explanation was that somebody had lied their ass off to those guards earlier and there were only three people that she knew of who could pull off something like that and two of them were being detained by the inspector.

Then a thought crossed her mind as the trio reached the barracks and shut the hatch behind them _No it couldn't be him, he's not even supposed to have arrived yet_ but the more she thought the more it made sense. The Wraiths had a Guardian Angel looking out for them……..

***********************

_I gotta remember to lay off the brew next time we have a crisis_ Paddy was in god-like shape for a man of his age but the stuff he'd been drinking earlier seemed to stack fifty years onto his shoulders as he ran. About the only sound he could hear was the hard beating of his heart against his rib cage as he set what he was sure was a new land speed record to get to the main supply office halfway across the base. Ten meters behind he could barely make out the pounding and panting produced by his three escorts Puck, Mya, and ShadowDragon as they made an effort to keep up with him, not having a whole lot of luck with it.

"Paddy slow down will ya!" ShadowDragon shouted ahead as she shoved her way past a technician who'd been in her way. The halls, though not as full as usual, still had some traffic moving through it at this late hour. 

"No time lass we gotta move!" he huffed back at her, the supply offices were a full kilometer away from the barracks and Paddy was already moving slow enough as it was. Even as fast as they were running the added burden of dodging the Cloud-9 personnel slowed them down a lot more then Paddy would ever feel comfortable with. Six minutes from their starting point Paddy finally stopped, that is, if you call skidding head long into a dead end stopping. 

"We're here!" He announced a he picked himself up off the floor and began to tamper with a keypad set into the wall next to a reinforced hatch. None of the Hellfires behind him bothered to ask what he was up too since he seemed so engrossed with what he was doing. "Almost got it," he announced twenty seconds later, "there!"Paddy stood back as the sound of latches and lock's retracting reverberated from behind the door. But when the door opened Paddy was more then a little shocked to see an MP standing there with a pulse rifle drawn and staring him in the face. "Why…um…ahhh," Paddy stammered as he furiously tried to think up a reason to explain the situation in a way so as not to get shot.

The MP with the gun, however, saved him from that when he lowered his gun snapped to attention, "sorry sirs I thought you were trying to break in!"

"Why, no apology necessary lad," Paddy assured, "we're all still in one piece aren't we?" The guard nodded his head.

"Thank goodness for that, you know what they would've done to me if I'd shot a _commander_?" Paddy hid the shocked/pleased look on his face and formed a devilish plan in his mind to take advantage of this case of mistaken identity.

"I can imagine it isn't very pretty, now can we get along to and do what needs to be done."

"Why of course sirs," The MP came out and stood to the side of the hatch and brought his riffle across his shoulder, "go right on in, I'll be standing guard out here if you need me." They all put on fake smiles and walked past the MP with ShadowDragon closing the hatch behind them and locking it up.

"Commander Paddy," The Irish man mused as he pulled two black disks out of his breast pocket, "Ohhh I like the sound O that!" He proceeded to hand one of the disks to Puck and another to Mya. Puck took one look at his and guessed instantly what it was, the markings on the outside were enough to let him know what kinds of programs were stored on these disks.

"Paddy these wouldn't happen to be Ghoul disks would they?" he asked as more of a demand then a question. A Ghoul disk was specifically designed with the purpose of sneaking into, and altering, heavily secured files and they were illegal as hell to have in your possession, and the penalty for being caught using them was strict.

"That's Commander Paddy to you," he chuckled, " and aye lad those are Ghoul disks, use'em to sneak inside the computer's supply lists and erase lot's 43 through 52 from our manifest." He said to both Puck and Mya while grabbing their shoulder and guiding them to some computer terminals set into the wall. 

"What about me?" ShadowDragon demanded.

"Ah you get the fun job," Paddy led her over to a wall of file cabinets, "take whatever I toss to you and burn the bloody hell out of'em using that," Paddy gestured to a hole in the wall

that led to a cremation unit. Shadow Dragon smiled as Paddy yanked open the file drawers and tossed her armload after armload of paper documents. 

"Done!" Puck announced two minutes later followed shortly thereafter by Mya. Paddy looked at his wristwatch and smiled. The paper trail of their cargo was now ash and the electronic records would show only what he wanted them to show.

"Excellent, perhaps I can make galactic criminals out of you after all!"

"We'll do our best Paddy," Mya assured. Paddy would've answered but they were pressed for time so instead he resorted to grunting in amusement as he went back over to the door, grabbing the Ghoul disks from Mya and Puck on the way. He opened the hatch and explained to the MP on the run that they had forgotten something and had to leave for a while. The MP, being the good little guard that he was, agreed readily and resumed his post in the room and once again with Mya, ShadowDragon, and Puck in tow he ran out but this time in the direction of the barracks.

All in all they had performed their part of the plan perfectly but there was still one little nagging detail. Not that he was complaining, but Paddy knew for a fact that MP's do NOT mistake a man wearing sergeant's stripes for a commander. Somebody would have to tell him to make a mistake like that, but as to who had done it Paddy didn't have a clue. _Oh well,_ Paddy thought as he once again began to set new speed records tearing across the base, _maybe I can compare notes with Phoenix when we get back………_

_ _

***********************

"We're lost aren't we?"RedBaron demanded as Pyro once againstopped to confer with a map.

"No, just temporarily misplaced." Pyro answered as he set off down, what looked to the Hellfires to be a completely random course. Pyro, their unofficial leader at the moment, had taken them close to the main hanger complex's that were very near the landing pads. Their exact purpose for being this far out was known only to Pyro and even then the Hellfires were beginning to have doubt.

"Damnit Pyro just tell us where we're running to anyway!" WoG shouted from the rear. Like Pyro WoG was a big man but unlike Pyro Wrath was unaccustomed to running great distances in short amounts of time. His answer was the surprise of seeing Pyro stop dead in his tracks in front of a vacuum chamber that led to the insides of Hanger-7. 

"Get your helmets on we don't have time to reinitialize the inside atmosphere!" They Hellfires began to comply until Rowsdower looked over to the environmental controls and noticed something amiss.

"Wait a minute the Hanger is already sealed and pumped full!"

"You sure? Thats not standard procedure for the grease monkeys." Pyro was at Rowsdower's side in an instant to look at the readout.

"That's what it says," Zap offered helpfully. Pyro silently sent a thank you to the idiot who had left the Hanger pressurized, very much against regs, thereby saving them a valuable five minutes.

"Well in that case," Pyro pulled down on a lever and charged into the hanger as soon as the two sets of doors opened. Once there, Pyro motioned Zap, Wrath, and the Baron over to a row of ships all painted black. When they got next to him Pyro handed them each a curious red box about the size of a cigarette carton. "Listen closely," Pyro started, "On each of our ships there's a small input port that looks like this," Pyro pointed out the small opening in a Thunderbolt painted in Wraith colors, "Stick this box in there and press the button next to the input port. Then wait for the ship to spit the box back out then move on until all the ships have gotten fixed."

"Before I do anything you're telling me what the Hell's going on!" Wrath growled. 

"You're altering the electronic signature of the ship so when the AAN scans them they won't be able to tell they've been heavily modified." Wrath brightened noticeably and scampered off through the hanger. The Baron just sighed and went over by an Attila to start the aforementioned process. 

"You heard the man let's do it!" Zap shouted in an haze of enthusiasm that only a Rowsdower could muster at this particular moment in time. He stopped in the middle of the hanger to adjust his shades and gas mask before running to a Jackal bike so he could do what needed to be done. Once they had gotten into the spirit of things they managed to finish just inside four minutes. Unfortunately, that brought their total time from embarking twelve minutes.

"Shit!" Pyro exclaimed as he noticed the time of his wristwatch. Looking around the hanger for an instant and noticing the Hellfires had brought their helmets, he practically yanked them over to some supply crates opposite their ships and began to rip off the tops and stuff them in.

"What in the hell!" Wrath yelled as Pyro picked him up and dropped him into a crate with Zap.

"We haven't got time to run before the inspectors get here, get your helmets on and seal the crates. I'm gonna flood the hangar and hide my ass from the inspectors. I suggest you do the same!" Before they could object Pyro slammed the crate shut and looked to the Baron, "There aren't anymore empty crates in here, go hide in a Sentinel!"The Baron would've objected under different circumstances but morbid curiosity convinced him to play along. As fast as he could he dove into the nearest available Sentinel and locked the hatch behind him. Pyro was already at the hanger entrance inputting the proper code to flood the hanger. The sickly colored gasses of Core's atmosphere began to drift in as Pyro ran for his own Attila and sealed himself inside not even daring to activate a single system on the ship. Pyro breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the hanger complete it's transformation seconds before the indicator lights on the entrance doors flashed to life........

***********************

"Damnit what the Hell is wrong with this piece of shit!"While Rudy wasn't facing them Slayer did a very bad job of hiding the grin on his face from Kaeli. "Security post Alpha two give me the access codes to Section-4!" Rudy shouted into his comm link.

"66220." A voice answered back. Rudy began to mumble himself as he jammed the sequence into the keypad. Then he suddenly straightened and looked back at Slayer for a second before speaking into his comm link again.

"Security post Alpha 2 give me all the access codes for the doors between here and Hanger-7." Kaeli noticed Slayer rock back on his heels upon hearing that. Soon Captain Rudy managed to open the door and they were once again, the only delays being no more than perhaps ten seconds when they stopped at a door for Rudy to input a code. Slayer made glances at his wristwatch when Rudy wasn't looking seeming to calculate something in his head and relaxing only slightly. Kaeli was extremely annoyed at the fact that she could not talk to Slayer with that busy body of a captain ahead of them. Her annoyance only increased with every step until they halted in front of doors that marked the entrance to hanger seven where eight men dressed in mechanic's environment suits waited for them.

"You may commence with the inspection!" Rudy shouted to the men. Without so much as a nod the lead of the team opened the first set of doors each sweeping their data pads near a computer terminal on the inside to get an updated list of the Wraiths supply manifest so they would know which crates to search. When the last of them entered and closed the doors the small room was flooded to match the atmosphere in the hanger and soon the eight men disappeared from sight as they passed through the second set of doors. 

For an agonizing fifteen minutes Kaeli was entertain only by the sight of Slayer remaining rigidly still and Rudy humming something to himself in anticipation of what he could catch Slayer on. He set a broad grin into his face as the tem of eight ment reappeared in the chamber and got themselves sprayed down for decontamination. When they walked out of the room and into the corridor a man whom Kaeli presumed to be in charge of the group went up to Rudy.

"Nothing unusual to report sir the ships and cargo inside all passed with flying colors."

"What do you mean they passed!? How many times did you check them?"

"Six times sir, all scanned and looked over visually, nothing unusual to report." Rudy began to glow red with suppressed rage.

"Thank you Lieutenant, you're dismissed."

"Yes sir," the lieutenant and his group walked away from the hanger leaving a grinning Slayer, a confused Kaeli, and an extremely unhappy Rudy.

"Mark my words Robertson you'd better watch your ass because when you finally do slip I'll have the AAN over you like maggots on flesh!"

"Yes sir thank you sir." Slayer responded. Rudy snorted and stomped away in a huff. When it was clear that he was far out of hearing range Kaeli turned to Slayer who now bore a triumphant air about him.

"May I ask what the hell just happened?"

"Well we just pulled the wool over the AAN's eyes for a while but it won't keep them at bay for long. If I know Rudy he's gone off to scheme another way to catch us with our pants down."

"All the more reason for us to leave soon." Kaeli walked up to the chamber and put on he helmet. "Now I suspect you'll want to go inside so you can see if they messed with your shit?"

"Damn your good." 

"I know." Kaeli smiled as she punched the button and they started the entering process into the hanger. When they passed into the other side with their helmets securely fastened Kaeli immediately walked ahead two paces and bent down to pick up an bag filled with something odd. From what Slayer could see they were multicolored and about the size of a gumdrop only they weren't shaped like a gumdrop, they looked more like.........

"Rowsdower's been here I see." Kaeli observed s she bent down to pick up more of the colored object filled bags. 

"So that's where they went!" a voice called out on the radio. Kaeli and Slayer immediately looked up and around until they saw a group of figures running their way.

"Pyro what the hell are you doin here?" Slayer asked when he spotted the largest figure in the group.

"Sorry sir but we ran out of time and had to hid in here," The large man shrugged, "they find anything?"

"Not a damn thing," Slayer confirmed, "good job to you all but we aren't done yet. I suspect Alistar will have some modified plans for us so we'd better get back to the barracks and pack. Commander Kaeli and I will go out the back door," Slayer said pointing to the decontamination chamber, "the rest of you head out the front of the hanger so as not arouse the MP's. God knows their the last thing we need right now."

"Yes sir!" everyone confirmed before going out his or her separate ways. In this round against the AAN the Wraiths and Hellfires had come out without a scratch but they all knew if they didn't do something soon they wouldn't be as lucky next time........

***********************

** **

****Things were going from bad to worse fast, far too fast for Alistar's liking. He already had enough problems staring him in the face without the AAN shoving their way into his business. The general had planned on at least two more days of quiet for him to plot and scheme without the AAN nearby but the appearance of Rudy his plans had been shot into space. 

"Damn if I don't want to shoot that bloody bastard Rudy." Alistar mumbled.

"Don't we all," answered the only other man in the room odd, in the fact that he wore an Israeli gas mask and his right eye seemed to glow a constant blood red.

"You realize what will happen if Rudy finds anything?"

"That bitch couldn't find his ass with both hands," the as yet unknown man took a seat and looked over a data pad in his hand, "besides I made sure Slayer's people would have an easier time than usual with Vampire."

"I knew there was reason I keep you around, you're the dirtiest scoundrel I've ever had in my employ."

"Don't compliment me until we finish pulling this shit off."

"Yes quite, have you got a contingency plan in mind?"

"Yeah but it's a helluva lot messier than my last one but only for the AAN personnel and those jackasses deserve it anyway."

"Excellent," Alistar got up and offered the man a handshake, "Happy hunting Major and don't fuck up. We need these squadrons."

"Sir," the hooded figure nodded and returned the shake before exiting Alistar's office through one of the hidden wall panels. Alistar watched him go and resumed filling out a few forms to appear busy when the inevitable visit from the AAN war supervisor would come. 

***********************

Steel stopped in front of the med. bay they had left Angel a half-hour after he'd set out from the barracks, without a map. He'd realized his mistake only after getting himself thoroughly turned around to the point where even helpful directions were useless. He had actually happened upon the med. bay by mistake when looking for a security post to get his hands on a map. Now he was glad that fate and fortune had smiled upon him at this particular moment. He'd heard the Vampire warning over his comm. and knew that in an hours time he would either be making ready to move out fast or getting prepared for a court marshal. _All the more reason to hurry_ Steel reminded himself as he opened the door and stepped into the still busy med bay. 

He was almost immediately confronted by Dr. Emrid who wore an exhausted expression on her normally calm and placid face, "Ah Sergeant Guttenberg how nice of you to finally show, come this way please." Dr. Emrid led Steel into the med bay weaving through the various beds and patients still suffering from the last sneak attack into an isolated recovery room past some curtained doors. Inside there were two women with one dressed in hospital robes and the other in a battle suit. Dr. Emrid leaned close into Steel's ear before leaving, "Get them the hell out of here." She whispered before her form disappeared through the curtains.

"RainbowKat I presume," Steel said to the black haired woman in the battle suit.

"The one and only," She said smiling, "you must be Steel. Angel's told me all about you well actually all about how you owe her a drink."

"Damn straight," Angel declared as she got up off the bed, "have they finally decided to let me out of this prison. Twenty four hours in a hibernation regenerator hasn't exactly made me comfortable around here." Steel chuckled as he pulled a flask from his utility belt and handed it to Angel.

"Here have a drink of this to get you up and going, it's from my private stash just as I promised. Can you walk on your own?" Angel eagerly took the container and swilled a long pull before she replied.

"*burp* Good stuff, and yes I can move on my own just not very fast. Why, are we getting ready to run from the AAN?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Kat here was nice enough to fight through the orderlies to get my equipment. I got it just in time to hear the Vampire signal. Honestly I didn't expect anyone to come pick me up for a few more hours."

"Well here he is so lets get going." Kat urged. She seemed overly eager to be out or Emrid's presence.Angel avoided Kat's attempts to shoo her out of bed and got up on her own two feet only stumbling once as she got used to the feeling of gravity pulling at her. Angel started forward and led the way out of the room with RainbowKat close behind making sure she would be within range to catch her should she fall at any given time. Steel picked up a box containing Angel's belongings, including the giant TK-Pulse Rifle, and lumbered out after them, this time making sure to pick up a map on his way out. He was eager to get back to the barracks so he could learn what that signal was all about. It was well understood by the Wraith's that Vampire was used only in an emergency and besides; this box was starting to get heavy.

***********************

** **

****Though having Angel to watch over did slow them down a bit, it didn't take nearly as long to make it back to the barracks from the med bay as it had the other way around for Steel. They reached the Barracks at the agreeable time of ten minutes from their departure to find the Wraiths and Hellfires all sitting around intermixed chatting quietly. That all changed when they noticed Steel, Angel, and RainbowKat enter the room. A collective cheer went up from the Wraiths as they noticed one of their felled comrades rejoining them, hugs, handshakes, and words of wisdom like "next time remember to dodge" were exchanged before things quieted down enough for Angel to get a little breathing room and mosey over to the Hellfires to greet a few old friends of hers. 

But within the crowd of happy comrades new and old she picked up traces of concern and worry not associated with her recent injuries. She was about to ask the question when a loud rapid beeping sound rang out through the air. Everyone in the room had been trained as far back as basic that most of the time the only things that made beeping noises produced large fireballs that fried men alive. The Wraiths and Hellfires alike dove for cover some turning over bunks and some ducking behind footlockers. When the rapid beeping reached a shrill whine everyone closed their eyes and made ready to suffer through something particularly nasty. But the only sound to reach their ears was a small _whoosh_ as something ripped through the metal grate if a ventilation hole and proceeded to imbed itself in the opposite wall.

One by one each Wraith and Hellfire carefully came up from his or her hiding place most with a pulse rifle at the ready and looked around. Puck was the first to spot the shiny arrow like cylinder stuck in the wall. With Pyro and the Baron at his back Puck very carefully walked over to the arrow and pulled it out of the wall taking a close look at it. Attached to the base was another cylinder that had the Wraiths squadron seal printed on it.

"What the hell is going on out here?" Kaeli stormed out of the commanders quarters and spotted Puck right away, "Puck did you find a new toy you play with."

"I'm not sure, it looks like a data cylinder with the Wraith seal on it but it's not compat-"

"Let me see that!" Slayer practically flew out of the office and snatched the object from Puck before the private could say another word. Without an explanation Slayer stuck the cylinder into a bulky data pad he had with him and read off the screen for a few seconds his expression going from grim to dark. He summoned Kaeli over to him and let her have a brief read before whispering some instructions. Kaeli suddenly snapped around while Slayer retreated to the office.

"Pack your gear and be ready to move in five minutes!" Then she too disappeared into the commander office. The Hellfires and Wraith's being the, professionals that they were, obeyed without question but still wondered what the hell was going on this time. Across the way in Hanger-7 someone else was already making ready to answer that question.

***********************

Hangers are unusually cold and sterile places when they're filled with an atmosphere. This was one of the attempts made at keeping sickness from spreading rapidly throughout a base, as hangers were the most likely place where a disease would start. The isolation of the environment was an effective means of keeping the general health of base assured but it also meant that anyone on the outside would be unaware of any odd security conditions if you played your cards right. 

In the electronic security booth the lone guard lay unconscious the screen in front of him that showed the interior of Hanger-7 as a Beetle transport hovered through the AC field with it's huge cargo doors open and ready to receive it's cargo. This hanger contained the ships and supplies of several different squadrons and the Beetle had been called upon to transport the entire load out of a squadron, reportedly Gold squadron, and haul it somewhere that was known but at least 1,000 miles away. There were two-armed MP's keeping watch over the loading process not as entirely alert as they should've been; interior guard duty was almost never exciting in the ISDF. But what their demeanor didn't show was that these two were AAN insurgents, placed within the ISDF security forces to act as spies. It was their job, as well as the ones placed in main security, to monitor ISDF installations for any suspicious activities to be reported to the AAN and as such they were the ones to watch for when you wanted to do anything sneaky.

The major Alistar had been conversing with kept the outside security forces at bay with a pathetically simple video loop engineered at the electronic security booth, now all that was there to worry him were the two armed MP's providing over watch for this loading session. The major had already made arrangements to make sure the pilots of the Beetle would provide him with no trouble. That done the major stood outside the entrance to Hanger-7 tapping his foot impatiently and making damn sure to stay out of the MP's line of sight through the small viewport on the decontamination doors. His wait only lasted a minute before he heard quick and measured footfalls running in his direction. His hooded head turned and saw a mob of people headed his way dressed in standard battle suits but without unit designations and each clutching a duffel bag stuffed to maximum capacity.

The Wraiths and Hellfires didn't have time to take everything they needed and were leaving some equipment and supplies behind to come back for a little later. As it was they carried with them nothing but their personal weapons and items of affection weather they be related to their jobs or not. One of the figures spotted the major right away and sped off ahead of the group to get a good look.

"Uncle Sam?" she asked hesitantly, "What the Hell are you doing here?" Phoenix had already guessed the mans identity as Jake "QC" Anderson her uncle and a long standing professional in the Black Op's world.

"QC?" Slayer came up right next to Phoenix eyeing the man carefully, "damn you're a sight for sore eyes. What the Hell's going on?"

"Alistar sent me to bail your asses out of here but those AAN motherfuckers threw all my plans out into the vacuum so now we have to do it the hard way," QC motioned for both of the squadrons to gather round, "now huddle up and I'll explain what the fuck you're going to do in there. Do NOT do otherwise or we'll all be drilled a new asshole!" QC got acknowledgementsfrom everyone before going on to explain his "plan". In five minutes they had all shed their weapons and marched into the Hanger, helmets off, proceeding directly to the Wraiths and Hellfires vehicles. QC however, walked over to the two MP's to do his part of the plan.

"What goes on here?" One of the MP's, probably the senior of the two, demanded.

"You blind asshole?" QC spoke in the manner of the insulted loadmaster that he was pretending to be, "we're here to load those ships and supplies onto that transport!" QC stated angrily pointing out the Wraiths and Hellfires as they jumpstarted their vehicles and loaded them onto the massive cargo hauling ship.

"Sir ye si- hey wait a minute!" the MP's finally started to notice the marking s on the ships and supplies "that transport is supposed to be loading for Gold squadron," The MP's started to bring their weapons to bear but never got the chance to take another step further. QC's right arm flashed out and connected with the senior MP's temple stunning him enough to throw him off balance and to the floor. The second MP stalled for a second in shock before he sighted his weapon in on QC, who strangely wasn't moving to stop him, and tightened his finger on the trigger before he went limp and fell to the hanger deck with a clatter his shots going wild. A man stepped out from behind the fallen MP's rubbing the side of his left hand and began to bind the two together. 

He was dressed in a standard ISDF pilot's uniform with plain features and dark short cut hair. A scar going across his right eye was visible as he looked up from his task to the major, "Is that all of them QC?" he asked.

"Yeah, you take care of the flight crew?"

"Sleeping soundly, get the gear into the hold and I'll have you guys up and out of here in no time."

"No problem," QC assured as the dark haired man as he ran up into the Beetle and took a seat in the cockpit, "Kaeli, Slayer!" QC shouted into the hanger, "how long till you've got all your shit squared away?"

"Loading the last of it now!" Kaeli reported as she sped by in a loader on her way to the Beetle. QC watched as the Hellfires and Wraiths ran into the transport after it, having recovered their gear, and counted them off making sure that no one was left behind. He sent a signal up to the cockpit that all was in order before tearing into the cargo hold himself to grab hold of something as the cargo doors swung shut and the mammoth sized transport lifted itself off the ground and began it's bumpy ascent through Core's unkind atmosphere. Only two people in the craft actually knew where it was going and as for the rest they were the only ones who knew for sure what they'd be doing when they got there.

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END PART4

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**Authors Notes: **Ah yes I know it has been awhile but fear not my loyal readers I have not forgotten about my beloved Battlezone fics.I have been a little busy with WWFFN and I probably will be with WWFFN II but I will be finishing this series out and not turn it into another one of FFN's infamous phantom series that only appear long enough to get halfway through before the Author becomes bored. I WILL see this thing through and make it better as it goes along, that's where you all come in. If you have any suggestions go ahead and let me know weather it be thorough Yahoo or AOL IM or through e-mail. Now that I've got that out of the way I'd like to thank all who volunteered for this series and yes, I know this part was a little boring but it was necessary and shall help set up for a royal ass kicking later. I hope you enjoyed what I've put forth and I thank everyone who reviews in advance. So now That I've said what has to be said……….

Till the next time,

Admiral Kelley out!

   [1]: http://www.geocities.com/quakelord_of_clql/qc



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